As I reached the top of a small hill, I came to a stop and lowered my hood, making my bone white hair flow free. I looked out over the quiet valley and took in the familiar sight of home.

  In the middle of the valley flowed a large river and on my side of it, lay a quaint village that was just large enough to feed a modest population of a few hundred. A little down the slope of the hill, the village’s farmland started and contained everything from barley to apple trees, from chickens to cattle.

  On the opposite side of the river, on a hill that was noticeably larger than the one I stood on right now, lay a large castle. Though, it was different from most other castles, as it didn’t have a single towering keep, but instead the roofs and towers of several large buildings were visible over the large walls that made up the border of the castle grounds.

  Roughly three quarters of the castle was surrounded by forests and on the riverside lay pastures where all kinds of animals roamed, both magical and mundane. Through these pastures snaked a paved road up to the castle’s main gate from where a stone bridge crossed the river.

  Once I’d finished taking in the sight, and having taken a whiff of the relieving smell of home, I headed down towards the village.

  Normally, I wouldn’t enter a populated area with my hood down, as my abyssal black eyes and deadly pale skin tended to make people antsy. Didn’t know why, but people tended to see me as a monster. I’d honestly lost count how many times people had attacked me. Did they know that was rude?

  Luckily, the people here were properly civilised folk, and they give me respectful nods and greetings in passing. Not a single one raises an eyebrow at my appearance. Though, a few of them did wonder why my simple black dress and equally black hooded cloak are tattered. They grew confused once they saw that my sandals were still in good condition. I politely waved their concern away and declined their offers to mend them.

  I came to a stop once more in the middle of the bridge. In length not in width, I was not one of those rude people that would stop in the middle of a pathway. And I looked out over the river, as the river gently crashed into the stone supports, with a nostalgic look. It took me a moment to tear myself away from both the river and the nostalgia that it had invoked, not all of it good, and I continued to the other side.

  I made my way up to the castle at a steady pace, pausing occasionally to pat one of the animals that came up to me. Eventually, though, I passed underneath the castle’s main gate and walked out into the main courtyard.

  The courtyard had teenagers in school uniforms milling about on the paths between the greens, which were decorated with ornate bushes, hedges and statues. The main crossroads of the path between the main gate and the main building, and the path between the student housing buildings and the faculty buildings, housed a magnificent fountain. In the middle of the fountain was a woman in knightly armour bending down to offer all those that approached a helping hand.

  Honestly, it had more pomp and circumstance than a school needed in my opinion, but, yeah, one needed to cater to the nobles to get their recognition sometimes.

  And, yes, I lived in a school, what of it?

  As I made my way over to the main faculty building, the majority of the students gave me similar respectful nods and greetings as I had received down in the village. Whereas the youngest of them looked at me in curiosity or fear, and some of them with a mixture of both, clearly marking them as first-years. The new school year had started about a month ago, after all, and they had yet to have the privilege to attend one of my classes.

  Once I entered the building, I came to a stop as my path is blocked by none other than the headmistress. She was a stern looking woman in her late fifties, as always, she was wearing a puffy dress that wouldn’t be too out of place at a ball. Honestly, I had always felt she looked kind of ridiculous. But, to each their own, so I had never commented on it and wasn’t planning to do so now.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She had woolly white hair pinned up in one of her usual dated hairdos and an elegantly thin pair of glasses hung from a thin chain around her neck, apparently, she had reached the age when she needed them. She looked at me with her lavender eyes narrowed into stern slits and she was tapping her fingers on her left hand against her upper right arm, as she had her arms crossed. Clearly, she wasn’t pleased with me, but I couldn’t for the life of me recall what I had done that would warrant her displeasure.

  “Good of you to finally grace us with your presence, Morgana,” she said with that faked sternness of hers. “Maybe next time you could deign to inform me of your leave of absence?”

  Ah… So that’s what it was. I did now seem to recall me leaving in a rather impromptu manner. Which meant… I shook my head free of that particular thought and focused on my displeased former student.

  “I, uh, forgot?” I said hesitantly without looking remorseful in the slightest. “But I’m sure it didn’t cause any major problems, did it?”

  The woman balked and looked like she would tear her extremely curly hair out of her head.

  “That’s… not the issue here…,” she said, whilst visually struggling to contain her composure. “We have a protocol. Could you please not act as if it doesn’t apply to you?”

  I chuckled and patted the struggling woman on her shoulder.

  “I’m sorry, okay?” I started, before I immediately ruined it. “You used to be such a fun student, Eweleanor. What happened to her? You used to cast all kind of prank spells at me. An-”

  I was promptly cut off as she placed her hand over my mouth, before she groaned.

  “Please don’t ever talk about my dark past again,” she grounded out. “I can’t goof around as a headmistress. People won’t take me seriously. And for the love of the Light, please call me miss Cheviotteau.”

  I sighed as I reached up to remove her hand from my mouth.

  “And, as I’ve told you already, you don’t need to be uptight to be a good leader,” I said, before I shrugged. “But you do you and stress yourself into an early grave.”

  I could see a vein bulge on her forehead.

  “Anyway, co–,” she started, before pausing as she laid eyes on the cage that I was carrying on my back. Another thing people had been staring at me, though she elected to be a bit more direct and point at it. “What is that?”

  I grinned and let the cage down from my shoulders, so I could place it on the floor. Inside of it was a small baby dragon, whose scales were as black as a starless, moonless night and upon placing the cage on the floor opened her electric blue eyes. She blinked a few times to clear the remnants of her sleep, before she looked up at Eweleanor with a tilted head.

  Eweleanor looked down at the baby dragon with a mixture of annoyance and horror, whilst I casually opened the cage to let the baby dragon out. Eweleanor let out a growling groan, which I found quite fun, considering she was a sheepkin.

  “Why, in the name of all things holy, did you bring a dragon to the school?” she demanded of me.

  I simply shrugged after I picked the baby dragon up.

  “I couldn’t very well let her starve all alone now, could I?” I answered, without a hint of concern as I started to gently stroke the tiny top of the baby dragon’s head. Eweleanor raised a questioning eyebrow, however I sighed before she could even ask whatever question had been on her mind. I gently covered the baby dragon’s ears. “Her parents died in the magical phenomenon that I had left to study and deal with. I didn’t arrive in time to save them, so I watched over the egg, and it hatched shortly after I had dealt with the phenomenon.”

  Her eyes widened marginally and, after a noticeable and tense pause, nodded reluctantly.

  “Alright, fine. You can keep her. Just make sure she doesn’t cause any problems, alright?” she acquiesced, and I nodded to signal my agreement, so she daintily cleared her throat. “Anyway, as I was about to say. Please come to my office tomorrow to talk about your return.”

  I nodded again, whilst a curious baby dragon was struggling in my hold, eager to start exploring.

  “I will,” I agreed, though I couldn’t be bothered telling her when. I’d been there when I’d been there.

  Eweleanor nodded in return.

  “Excellent,” she said, as if she had achieved everything she set out to, before she left the entrance for her office.

  I started heading to the stairs, when a demanding squeak reminded me of what all living beings needed and headed down to the kitchens instead. There I confiscated a good haul of bite-sized pieces of meat that I fed to the hungry baby dragon whilst I made my way up the stairs to my chambers.

  I made my way all the way to the building's highest floor, where my chambers were. Though, it would be more accurate to describe them as an apartment, an apartment with four rooms, a kitchenette and a large balcony.

  I placed the baby dragon on the ground so she could freely explore, before I remembered that I was... not the neatest person and quickly put away the books, clothes and student papers that were lying all over. The very thing I had shaken off to remember earlier.

  Once I had put away everything, I sat down in my, now accessible, couch with an exhausted sigh. Well, mental exhaustion at least, as I hadn’t felt physical exhaustion in roughly two millennia.

  Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I was an ancient lich?