Lisa glared at the pair of girls who sat closer to Albaer than she liked. ‘That dark haired one… the demoness said she had a sister, and who can say what demons can do? Why shouldn’t they be able to hide their nature by pretending to be human?’ It made sense, as much as anything did since her world turned upside down… again. ‘First all those people die, the jobs go, my oldest friend’s father kills himself, his mother just… I don’t even know. Then everything goes to shit, now Albaer hates me, and I… he summoned a demon… and demons are ‘real’... plus I met a real angel…’ That last part, she had her doubts still. ‘I could have just been dreaming. But if demons are real, why not angels?’ Both ideas kept Lisa up at night, staring into the utter emptiness of the deepest darkness.

‘Now two mystery girls whose names I’ve never heard show up? And they’re staying with Albaer? It can’t be a coincidence, no, I’d have to be an idiot to think it is… which means one of those two girls is Raziel, and the other… it’s gotta be her sister. At a guess, Isadora is Raziel, the way she moves, that cocky swagger…’

Lisa reached up and touched the dark circles under her eyes. Despite having been kept up many nights by the feel of those talons on her flesh and the promise to drop her off from a thousand feet in the air, and the fact that one really existed at all, what really grated her was worse than terror personified. It was the presumption of the demoness who claimed to know the young man better than herself, the one who grew up with him.

‘Wait, are they actually having sex with him… ugh, did he…’ Lisa’s mind jumped to that and recalled the way the demon succubus straddled him, the way she… touched his cheek while he lay unconscious or ‘asleep’ on the carpet. ‘I guess… but...‘ The thought transitioned to a vivid, wild imagination of the boy she grew up with indulging in a wild orgy of lewd sex with two succubi sisters, and her face began to turn as red as the demon’s skin.

It was Albaer who noticed. “Lisa… Earth to Lisa.” He said and waved his hand in front of her several times. “You good?” He asked and she suddenly blinked several times in rapid succession.

“Oh… y-yeah sorry!” She eeped out and looked down at her book again.

“It’s rude to stare.” Isadora said with her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“S-Sorry, I’m sorry.” Lisa said, though it was not for staring that she made her apology. She swallowed hard and caught a glimpse of Albaer’s textbook to catch the page number, then thumbed her pages forward in the book with a shaking hand.

The teacher droned on about cell mechanics until Isabella raised her hand the way she’d seen other students do.

“Yes... Isabella?” The teacher asked, his passionate lecture being interrupted brought a little frown to his face but he looked at her over the rim of his glasses and waited for her question anyway.

“Yeah, uh, this is really interesting-” She smiled when his frown disappeared and a bright twinkle came to his eyes.

“It is, isn't it? So fascinating, to learn the very fundamentals of life itself, there is no better field of study!”

Lialah cleared her throat and, sensing he was about to go on and on, she rushed out her question, “It really is, but how do you know all this stuff, I mean… like these details… My eyes are good, really good. But I can’t see what you’re talking about…”

“Have you never used a microscope?” He asked, his little frown returning.

“No, never.” She shook her head, bouncing her blonde hair around, there was a faint hint of laughter around the room.

“Oh, I see. Well that’s a tool we use that lets us look at very, very small things that the naked eye could never hope to see on its own.” He answered, and Lialah perked up.

“So… could it see a soul?” She asked, “Or like… magic, I mean… if magic were real, do you think it could see that? Or what about other dimensions?”

The teacher chuckled and shook his head indulgently, “No, no. I think not. If those were real, I doubt they’d be viewable by a microscope, more likely they would be based on some form of wavelength like radios and would need something suitable for something like souls or magic, and according to current hypothesis on other dimensions, you would have to tap into the energy of a collapsing star or the gravitational pull of the resulting black hole in order to find other dimensions. But that is a question more suitable for the astronomy or physics classes at University. Professors Maxwell and Manning have done some exceptional work in their respective fields, and may be able to tell you more. If you’re really interested,” he snorted, “in those subjects instead of Biology, they’re renowned experts who personally select their students. If you stay till graduation with top marks in those classes, you have a chance at selection for their classes.”

“Selection?” Raziel asked, “Like apprenticeship?” She asked.

“Yes, those two have the rare privilege of selecting who gets to study under them, a condition of working there.” He shrugged, “Most professors don’t get to do that, but… most aren’t leaders in their field either. Success is the ultimate path to freedom.” The older teacher actually made a very serious face, his eyes moving around the room, “You children should bear that in mind. You may fake success for a while, but ultimately, if you try to make your work more than it is, terrible things can happen.”

All eyes turned toward Albaer, and his head hung down.

“Real success is the highest form of social currency. Remember that.” The teacher was not looking at Albaer when he said it, and when he saw that the students were staring at the sandy haired young Albaer, the teacher cleared his throat and moved on.

“Now… ah, enough sidebar questions, let’s move on, we have a lot to cover before you go to lunch. Move on to the structure of the heart on page one hundred and sixty-two…” The teacher resumed his impassioned lecture to the students of his class. However, for all his efforts at presenting the material in an engaging way, he lost four minds to their own thoughts all in the same minute.