“Fine,” Aldric grumped, annoyed at how much he sounded like a petulant child. “Not like I want the attention. People just won’t leave me alone.”

“Must be your winning personality,” Zasia quipped almost immediately.

“... did you just make a joke?” Aldric asked, stunned.

Zasia rolled her eyes. “You’re a joke, Aldric.”

“... did you just make two jokes? Seriously, who are you? What did you do with Zasia?”

Zasia let out a full, honest laugh. It was a delightful sound. He’d missed her laugh. It did a lot to ease his mounting fears for a moment.

“Hurry and get better. I have my own classes to teach, you know. We also have a guest instructor visiting in a few weeks. We figured you could use some help expanding your teaching repertoire with two new students. You’ll want to be fully healed by the time they get here. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by who it is.”

Aldric was about to quiz her on that when she suddenly stood up and walked towards the door. “No, I won’t tell you, so don’t bother trying. Besides, you have visitors.”

She abruptly swung the door open, and in spilled Lilianna and Nadrina. They collapsed into a pile on the floor in front of Zasia, their faces the very picture of guilty.

“How much did you hear?” she asked, her tone sharp. The girls lowered their heads before Nadrina answered, “We only just got here, the door’s too thick so we didn’t hear anything clearly.”

Zasia turned back to Aldric, nodding minutely. She must have felt their mana fluctuations when they’d arrived. She would have mentioned it if they’d been there during the more serious talk. If she believed them, so would he. Besides, Nadrina wouldn’t lie. She was terrible at it. Aldric was able to let out the breath he’d been holding in.

“Make it brief, ladies, then get back to class. Afterwards, you can meet me in my office for a discussion on the meaning of ‘privacy’.”

“Yes, professor...” the girls chorused in dejected unison.

With that, Zasia tossed a final smile to Aldric, then turned and left the room in a swirl of fine skirts.

Both girls did their best to gather themselves with as much dignity as possible, which wasn’t very much. Uncomfortable silence followed after murmured apologies and the brushing of robes. Deciding it was up to him to break the awkward moment, Aldric asked, “You two doing alright?”

“We’re fine, thank you,” Lilianna answered, being the first to recover. “We volunteered to come see you on behalf of everyone else. I assumed you wouldn’t want the entire class pestering you while you’re recovering. You are clearly doing much better. You’re even conscious this time.”