After class ended, Enid stopped Wolfgang before he could slip out. She told him to come to her office later, she had a few questions about his studies.

  Wolfgang, expressionless as ever, said he understood and left the room.

  Once everyone else had gone, Nino stayed behind to help Enid straighten the lectern and wipe down the board.

  When they finished, Nino thanked her again and said he would bring her new pastries as a proper thank-you, then headed out.

  Enid didn’t turn down the gesture. Nino could seem a little unreliable because of how timid he was, but she could tell that if he rebuilt his confidence, the real strength he kept bottled up would finally show.

  Eleanor had told Enid privately that Nino’s grades and learning ability were genuinely strong, almost on par with hers. That was why she chose to work with him and trade ideas with him.

  Eleanor had joined the student council for a simple reason, she wanted to free up Nino’s time so he could read and study with her.

  Nino’s hesitance made him slow at handling council business, but if Eleanor stood beside him, the other students wouldn’t dare cause trouble. They respected her status too much, and that meant Nino could finally breathe.

  With Eleanor’s support, both Nino and Esme were already doing better, and Enid could relax a little.

  Next, she needed to figure out how to deal with Wolfgang.

  Not long after, Enid returned to her office and found Wolfgang already waiting by the door.

  She opened up right away, invited him in, and had him sit on the sofa while she prepared hot tea and snacks for a guest.

  Once everything was set, Enid sat across from him and studied him in silence.

  Wolfgang was massive, well over six and a half feet tall, with pale blue-white short hair and black eyes. Like an iceberg given a body, his face was just as cold and sharp as his build.

  Enid spoke first. “Wolfgang, is there anything in the course you didn’t understand?”

  Wolfgang said nothing.

  “If you’re struggling with anything, you can tell me,” Enid continued. “I’ll help however I can.”

  Wolfgang stayed silent.

  “Or if you have concerns about how I teach, you can say so.”

  No answer.

  “…Even if you’re upset with me, say it,” Enid added, patient to the end. “I’ll do my best to adjust.”

  Wolfgang didn’t respond.

  “If you don’t speak at all, we can’t really communicate.”

  Still nothing.

  Enid shook her head. “Alright. It looks like you don’t trust me yet, and that’s fine. Trust can be built.”

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  She rose to her feet. “I’m sure we’ll be able to talk like a normal teacher and student soon. I’ll prove I’m someone you can rely on.”

  She was just about to leave when Wolfgang caught the hem of her sleeve.

  “Please… don’t go yet,” he said, his first words since entering. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just… need a little time to get myself ready.”

  Enid blinked. So she’d misread him, he wasn’t cold and suspicious, just… something else.

  She sat back down across from him.

  Then the room fell into another long stretch of silence.

  Just as Enid started to wonder what was going on, Wolfgang scratched his head. His wolf ears twitched restlessly, like he was fighting with himself, and at last he forced the words out.

  “Honestly… it’s complicated. I don’t really know how to explain.”

  Enid caught the opening immediately. “No rush. Think it through. Start with the simplest part, whatever you feel comfortable saying.”

  Wolfgang finally explained.

  “I’m basically… permanently stone-faced,” he said. “I look serious because I can’t control my expressions. I’m not looking down on you or anything, and I’m not annoyed with you.”

  He hesitated, then added, more firmly, “If anything, I respect you. Your knowledge, and the way you treat students.”

  It was the longest sentence he’d ever said to her, and he wasn’t done.

  “And there’s my background,” he continued. “You know I’m a wolf-beastman from the Sagrave Empire. People get wary around me. Some are straight-up scared. You’ve seen it.”

  The Sagrave Tsardom was an old neighboring power to the northeast of the Stahill Empire.

  Its territory was huge and bitterly cold, and most of its population was made up of beastfolk, though there were plenty of humans as well.

  Sagrave had spent years fighting wars to the south against the Konkstein Confederation, and to the east against the Etten Steppe Tribal Alliance. That history left the country with a famously hard-edged, combative spirit.

  At the same time, Sagrave was known worldwide for its distinctive art and craftsmanship.

  Unlike the other two powers nearby, Sagrave and Stahill were on excellent terms. Part of it was politics, part geography, and part history.

  Long ago, the northern lands of what became Stahill, and the northwest of Sagrave, had been the Demon King’s territory. The two nations fought side by side against demonkind, paying a brutal price to drive them back and pin them in the far northern ice.

  The Drac Empire collapsed during that era. Stahill, recognized as its successor, inherited the alliance with Sagrave as well.

  Five hundred thirty-one years after the Demon King’s fall, the friendship between the two nations still held strong.

  But Stahill’s people preferred peace and etiquette, and they favored ornate clothing and lavish decoration.

  Sagrave’s people were the opposite, rougher around the edges, practical, and unbothered by formalities. The two cultures simply didn’t click.

  So even though relations weren’t bad, most people kept it to polite respect. Deep friendships across the border were rare.

  Plenty of Sagravians came to study at the academy, but many Stahill students were still afraid of the beastfolk they’d heard stories about, big brutes who supposedly ate raw meat and lived for fighting.

  And at the Stahill Grand Academy of Magic, a lot of international students came from the Konkstein Confederation as well.

  Those two countries were old enemies of Sagrave, so their students naturally distrusted each other. If they weren’t brawling on sight, that already counted as restraint.

  Wolfgang’s size, plus a face that looked frighteningly severe even when he felt nothing at all, made most people avoid him outright.

  The more he tried to explain, the more others mistook it for anger.

  Eventually, Wolfgang gave up on trying to talk to Stahill students. The only person who’d consistently treated him normally was Nino, the one friend he’d managed to make.

  As they talked, Enid learned something else.

  Wolfgang might look like a walking fortress, but he loved nature and quiet. His favorite thing in the world was lying in the grass, soaking up sunlight and a cool breeze.

  He didn’t have that loud, lively energy people expected from Sagrave students at all.

  That meant he didn’t fit in with the Sagrave crowd. He didn’t blend with the Stahill students either. Konkstein was out of the question.

  So he’d become what everyone saw now, a huge, silent guy who rarely spoke.

  By the time Wolfgang finished, even Enid didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh. She hadn’t expected the intimidating “silent giant” to have such an absurdly unlucky school life.

  And the reason he hadn’t come to her sooner was simple, he’d been afraid she would dislike him because of who he was, not because he hated Professor Innis.