He had done this exact lecture so many times he could repeat it in his sleep. Most teachers took more than a mere two years to get to this point, but he had switched schools and students too many times to not have his “first day of class” shtick memorized. Hence he could manage to tell them the list of books they needed to buy, or tell their butlers to buy for them, whilst also taking a full inventory of the outliers in the class.

The Princess could be right here, after all.

Even though the probability was incredibly low, impossible things happened everyday. He had certainly believed it impossible to not shoot the principal in the head during his speech, but he somehow managed.

The task was not going to be easy, there were thousands of ways the royal family could have used to hide the princess, and there was no guarantee they weren’t using them all. Every trick in the book. They had to have countless cards at play here, considering how public the news were. Public enough that the brats were busy gossiping about being in the same school as a Princess no one had ever seen, rather than listening to him rant his way through the study plan.

But he supposed blaming them would be hypocritical, he wasn’t listening to himself either. Creating a mental catalog of every noble heiress or merchants daughter attending such a popular academy on the year of its inception was quite a daunting goal, so he had to multi-task.

There were 25 students total in his classroom, a rather low number considering he wasn’t teaching the bloody Elementaries but one of the selling points of Knoxfort was “keeping the class personal and the teacher available”. Or, well, something along those lines with far more pretentious wording. Of those, 13 were female. His initial headcount of the girls was 14 but looking more closely at Emelyn Puaroh, John realized it was simply a boy with an overtly elaborate effeminate hair style.

John would bet a few silvers the boy was gay. If not, John would feel sorry for him. Considering the discreet annoyed glances most of the girls were throwing at his styled blonde river of hair, his dating possibility was taking major damage.

There were a few that immediately stood out, either because they wanted to stand out or didn’t care enough to fit in.

Kanessa Javelin belonged to the first category, she had already befriended as many people as she could without disturbing his lesson. too bubbly and cheerful to be a princess, As any royal heiress would be very disillusioned by the world due to dealing with politics from the day their cord was cut. So it would be the perfect disguise for a princess. Everyone would be searching for a reclusive and secretive yet elegant lady, because that's how hidden princesses were in the novels and the novels must be real!

Joshuanna Goldsmith was of the second, it seemed to be she was the only one actually listening to him. And also the only one dear nessa failed to befriend. Well, you can hardly expect a girl to be full of joy with a name like that. Her parents obviously wanted a son. And considering she introduced herself as Annastasia, she obviously didn’t get along with her parents.

Quiet, serious, withdrawn. Definitely could be the signs of a secret royal upbringing.

Definitely could be just another third borne daughter trying to make a life for herself.

Gemini Mayweather stood out because she was almost too stereotypical to be real. Hair dyed dirty blonde, too much eyeliner, too much blush, too much lipstick. Eyes predatory, not here for education but to spend her parents money having fun and taking virginities. Her personality would make a very effective disguise.

After all, no one expects the resident royalty to have the highest body count. But then again, it could simply be another merchants heiress burying her insecurities by flooding herself with boys. Girls too, for that matter, considering the way she glanced at Kanessa. No jealousy in her eyes, unlike when she looked at Anna’s natural charm.

Something caring, something more. They definitely knew each other, and John was willing to bet gold Gem herself didn’t know what her feelings meant. If this was the princess, she was either actually in love or a very very good actor.

Speaking of stereotypes.

There always had to be an ice queen type.

Viktoriya Vasilyevich would grab attention even if she had the personality of a boorish ostrich, simply due to her mane of platinum hair. Signature of the Vasilyevich family. it was certain this girl was a princess, even if not the one he was looking for.

She sat at her table, playing with a napkin stylishly signed VV. Her stormy blue eyes showed her pure lack of care towards worldly matters, placing her firmly in his second category. Although there was no contempt in her gaze, whether it be looking at him or her fellow classmates, there was definitely a strong sense of pride and superiority.

Her very stature declared “I am better than you”, and she wasn’t necessarily wrong. She’d probably learned all of this years curriculum when she was nine. The Vee bastards were known to be very harsh to their young, making sure no one of the new generation ever came short of any other nobility or merchantry of Azton. Even if it were the most childish of bouts, The Vee never lost.

Although these 4 took up most of his attention initially, the one that eventually came to worry him most was a girl by the name of Helen Forrester.

The reason was quite simple, she didn’t stand out. At all

Everyone has something unique about them, something or the other. It may not be noticeable at first glance but it had been 50 minutes, almost half their class time, and he had yet to find a single memorable fact about her. She was utterly dull, yet unnoticeably so. Her interests were listed in her student file as chess and wood carvings, but she had deemed not to join any of the related clubs. Her father, he found out from the file he requested from the Company that night, was a small time merchant turned big time alchemist. Well, relatively big time, considering every Jake and Jimmy in this goddamn place was the heir of some accursed noble somewhere.

Her heritage fell short of most of the students at Knoxfort, but having an alchemist as a father made her social standing oddly... average.

Average, again.

Most worrying was what he found in the examination file he stole from the knight-teacher, Ser Gregor. Her height was the exact average of Azdon women. Her weight was the exact average of Azdon women. Her bust size was the exact average of Azdon women.

Although the fact that Ser Gregor felt the need to measure the tits of a girl barely 18 was worrying, even if it had been noted down under ‘details for armor-smith’, the absolute normalcy of Helen Forrester was much more worrisome.

He didn’t suspect her of being the princess, that wouldn’t be worrying news. No.

But he knew he wouldn’t be the only one searching for the princess. And the way that girl looked at him, at the others in the class, with eyes completely dead and emotionless…

He suspected he had a fellow operative on his hands.