"Uncle Tete!" Teveli shouted happily when the Athamana group returned to the Summoning room.
"Uncle, it's your good great-grandfather! Do I look that old to you?!" His uncle tapped the boy on the head when he was within reach.
"No." Teveli pressed the sore spot. "But it would be strange if I called you Teveli, if I am called that too." He muttered under his breath.
"Let's stay with Tete." The man rolled his eyes. "What are you all doing here anyway? I expected one or two of you to come here, but not the whole rainbow." He asked curiously, but before anyone had a chance to answer, Suk took the lead of the group.
"Uncle Tete..."
"I already told you, it's Tete." Tele Tete interrupted, but the boy continued as if he hadn't heard it.
"Do you have a pill-making pot?" Suk asked.
"Of course I do, it comes with the job." He cut in, but his eyes immediately widened, like when you step into a puddle and realize your shoe had a hole in it. "Wait, how did you know about that?"
"I tried it just now..." The boy started, but the Koál man interrupted again.
"Who was that crazy animal who gave a medicien pill-making pot to a Zovárd?!" Tele Tete's reprimand took on a slightly hysterical tone, but when the team just blinked at him, the man was overcome with an ominous feeling.
"The teacher in class." Suk finally groaned.
"I have to beat that bastard." The man announced, then narrowed his eyes. "Wait, how did you get there? I sent you for physical education." Uncle Teveli scratched his head in embarrassment.
"To the lab?" Benkó grimaced, but the man just waved.
"They call everything a lab." He announced. "I said go to the lab two floors down."
"Uncle Tete. You said two doors down." Achilleus noted.
"No." The eldest hegin shook his head.
"You did." The Athamanas answered at once, and the man's face turned pale and he had to sit down at his desk.
"Oh good daimon, what have I unleashed on the world." He ruffled his hair.
"Then can I get a cauldron?" Suk asked enthusiastically.
"No way!" Tele Tete snapped at him, whereupon the Zovárd boy folded his arms in front of him and sat down on top of one of the desks with a grimace.
"All right..." Teveli suddenly began. "Uncle Tete, how did you end up here?" He asked with a curious look.
"You said you were checking out the situation in the West. We didn't think we'd meet here." Razvan explained, whereupon the man sighed.
"That was the plan." He nodded. "As you can see, I left."
"Why did you become a teacher?" Rahul scratched his head.
"The stroke and the nightmare that lives in the Fene wanted to became a teacher!" The hegin man cursed to himself. "I had no intention of becoming a teacher!" He declared and folded his arms in front of him. "I was just walking the streets of Floating Barracks, wondering where to go next..." Tele Tete began the story, his mind returning to the day of the incident weeks ago.
He was indeed walking the streets of Floating Barracks, he had just checked out of the inn that morning and was wondering where to go next, where to get more information, since his reconnaissance along the border had not been very successful. So the question remained, should he go north, or further west, or visit a tavern to find out some interesting rumors? But before he could come to any conclusion, a hand grabbed his shoulder out of nowhere.
"Ah, sir, you will be perfect!" That was all. The next thing Tele Tete realized was that he was in the director's office of Floating Air Barracks.
"Did you get one again?" The strange man in the room grabbed his head.
"Sure. He will be our new summoning teacher." The figure who caught Tele Tete and who had already stepped out from behind the man announced. A blue-haired gentleman about Tete's age was the hegin's kidnapper.
"Hey! Who said I wanted to be a teacher?!" Tele Tete objected.
"Believe me, sir, you will love it here with us. I will give you a week to get to know the school. Oh, is it okay if we drop formalities? Everyone here is a family! So, you can start next week." The blue-haired individual continued with the words.
"I have no say in this?" The hegin grimaced, dragging himself into trouble against his will.
"Knowing the director, the mayor already has your employment contract for signature. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it." The strange man sighed.
"You will get used to it." A lady patted Tele Tete on the shoulder. "He hired me like this last summer."
"So he always does this?" The Easterner asked.
"Usually." The man who had spoken earlier shrugged.
"And no one has a problem with this?" He didn't get a specific answer to his question, but the four men and three women in the room all shrugged their shoulders, as if this whole thing was completely normal and acceptable. "I don't have time for this! I have much more important things to do at home than this nonsense." Tele Tete grumbled under his breath.
"Oh, like, for example play the flute on the edge of the wheat field?" To the principal's mocking question, Tele Tete narrowed his eyes and even folded his arms in front of him.
"You are the first Westerner I have heard who can pronounce the word flute properly." He gritted his teeth, whereupon the principal laughed and pulled a flute out of his sleeve.
"You know, I went to many places before I became a school principal. I learned one thing and another..."
"So the principal can play the flute." Citar stammered into the story.
"I don't think that's the point, but he can. So I got stuck here afterwards and I haven't known what to teach these fools since." Tele Tete sighed.
"Summoning?" Rahul tried, to which he only got a sullen look in response.
"I tried, but they are completely stupid." The hegin waved.
"Summoning circle recognition." Teveli announced, and his uncle looked at him in confusion.
"What for? Everyone knows that." He shrugged.
"These are not. They should be taught as if they were six years old." Teveli explained.
"What?" At Tele Tete's question, all the Athamanas looked at Rahul, who was giving another ten-minute lecture on the Western education system. The oldest hegin in the room listened to the story with curiosity. "So now I understand why no one came to the classroom before me." The man shook his head. "I only intended it as a little warm-up." He sighed desperately.
"That's all it would have been for us, but the people here are only at the level of a six-year-old according to our system." Teveli said with a regretful smile.
"Well, now I'm aware of that. The only problem is, do you know what that means?" He asked, looking around the team.
"What?' Citar asked.
"I'm going to be bored to death." The man looked up at the ceiling, then leaned forward and continued in a low, sullen voice. "And I have to completely change my curriculum."