The man who Aldric guessed was Professor Rainer was a short, stubby man. He was probably handsome at one point, but a lavish and wealthy lifestyle seemed to have rounded out his features poorly. His expensive and opulent clothing helped hide some of his paunch, even if it drowned out the existence of his simpler professor’s robes.

He looked to Brianna still in Aldric’s arms and sniffed disdainfully, then seemed to notice the man holding her up. His eyes narrowed in curiosity. Aldric briefly considered dropping Brianna and running. He couldn’t afford to be recognized.

“Aldric?”

Kedrin was at the doorway now, looking surprised. He took in the scene before him and seemed to immediately put it all together, his eyebrows slamming down over eyes in a frown.

“Please apologize to my receptionist, Professor Rainer.”

Professor Rainer turned to him, realization dawning in his eyes. “This man is the—?”

“Now, please,” Kedrin interrupted, his tone clipped.

The two men had a staring contest for several more seconds before Rainer conceded. He mumbled a terse apology to Brianna, who fled like a startled deer back to her desk, then shot Aldric a measuring look before spinning on his heel and leaving.

Kedrin sighed, taking off his glasses to run his hand over his face in exasperation. “Apologies Brianna, Aldric. I didn’t expect him today. What are you doing here, Aldric? Don’t you have class today?”

“I... what?” Aldric said intelligently. He’d been thrown off by the earlier scene and now had no idea what to say. “But... yesterday...?”

“Ah yes, yesterday,” Kedrin interrupted, replacing his glasses and resuming his usual smile. “Try to keep the dramatic demonstrations to a minimum, please? I had a nice and long chat with young Mr. Caffaret, and assured him he was never in any real danger. Honestly, I think he took this as a challenge from you. I imagine he isn’t used to being put in his place, and he strikes me as the type who hates losing. Congrats, you have a new rival, and he’s half your age.”

Aldric flapped his mouth open and closed, but words didn’t come. Kedrin just gave him a patient smile.

“I expect an exceptional thank you gift from you, by the way. I had to pull out every trick in the book to smooth things over. Lots of practice dealing with overbearing noble parents helped. Luckily, Mr. Caffaret seems at odds with his father, so he hasn’t told him anything. I’m assuming, based on that miserable look on your face, that you learned your lesson and came to apologize, yes?”

Aldric wanted to say a lot of things right then. That he was sorry he was such a screw up. That he’d do everything he could from now on to make it right again. To thank Kedrin for, once again, sticking his neck out for Aldric and smoothing things over almost immediately.