I'd Give Up The World For You

Juliet forced herself to focus as she approached the headmaster's office. If there was one job interview she absolutely could not fail it was this one!

She knocked on the door and held her breath, praying he was inside. And that there was an opening for her somewhere. Anything would do. She would gladly be a cafeteria worker if it meant she was able to stay here. 

"Come in," a male voice said and she pushed the door open apprehensively. 

Putting on her most confident smile, she strode through it. "Hello, Professor Abernathy! My name is Juliet Gallagher and I've come here in search of a job." 

His eyebrows raised fractionally but he didn't say anything about her boldness. "Why do you wish to work here, Miss Gallagher?"

"I seek to continue enriching young minds but my previous positions were too far away from my family. I've been a teacher for quite some time. First as a private tutor and later at Sarien School of Science and Mathematics. That was where I studied back in the day." 

Sarien was the second best school in Mirea. Only Ripore was above it in terms of academic excellence. She figured that was the safest bet to use since obviously no one knew of her at Ripore. 

Juliet held out her forged letters and to her great relief the headmaster took them. That was a good sign. If he wasn't at least considering letting her on he would have kicked her out of his office. She couldn't fail this now!

Professor Abernathy looked over the letters before peering back up at her. "Your references are quite commendable, as is your wide variety of subject specialties. As it turns out, the literature professor recently lost a leg in a horrible accident involving a horse. He will need some time to recover. You can take over for the next term but when he returns I'm afraid you'll be delegated to the role of an assistant."

She wasn't bothered in the slightest. She didn't plan to be here long-term anyway. But geez, what a gruesome reason to stop working!

"I would be honored, Professor," Juliet said respectfully, though on the inside she was screaming and fist pumping. "When does the new term begin?"

"August fifteenth. I'm afraid that is more than a month away but it will give you time to acclimate and prepare lesson plans. I can give you a list of epic novels to cover but you will need to submit your lesson plans to me before the start of the term so I can be sure you are going the right direction," the headmaster replied. 

Not a problem at all! Literature was her specialty. As long as she read the novels in question she would be able to easily come up with appropriate topics of discussion, essay prompts, and so on. 

It was a good thing she was a fast reader. Even so, she probably wouldn't have time to try and hunt down Ira until after the new term started. 

Though Juliet truly didn't want to wait for Rukelion to cause more destruction, she had to admit it was for the best. She needed more than Ira. It had taken all five of her protagonists to defeat him in the book. Right now she needed to work on her reason to stay here more than she needed to convince one kid. 

"Understood. I will begin working on that immediately. Though I must ask…could I get an advance on my salary in order to continue staying in my boardinghouse? I'm afraid I used up most of my savings traveling here," she confessed. 

Professor Abernathy blinked at her. "A bold move considering you were not positive you would get the job. I thought you said you had family in the area. Can you not stay with them?"

"No, they don't have space for me. My sister has so many children they're already bursting from the rafters."

Thankfully, he seemed to buy the lie. "I see. Very well. Consider it a bonus since you are helping me out here. I wasn't sure how classes were going to resume if I didn't find someone willing to fill the position. I would teach it myself but literature is not my specialty."

Juliet was relieved and thanked him before leaving the office with a small pouch of coins and the reading list. She would need to check all of these out and get cracking on those lesson plans. 

She headed to the library and carefully searched for each one, stacking them up in her arms until she could hardly walk and balance the tower of books at the same time. Of course, with her luck, she ended up smacking directly into someone since she couldn't see. 

Books went flying everywhere and one of them nailed her on the head. Ow!

"Ugh," Juliet groaned. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't see where I was going."

"You aren't the only one at fault. I was trying to read and walk at the same time," a matter-of-fact voice responded. 

Without saying another word, the boy began to help gather her books but all she could do was stare. That was Ira Brooks! She recognized him instantly from his blue-black hair, light blue eyes, and expressionless face. There wasn't anyone else he could possibly be. 

He looked exactly as she had imagined him. The actor for the movie hadn't quite managed to get it right since his face was broader and his features less defined. Though he had some baby-faced roundness now his features would sharpen as he got older. 

Fox-like. That was how he was described in the book. His eyes were ice cold and gave off the impression of knowing everything. 

Ira stacked all of her books for her before picking up a fallen piece of parchment. It seemed he had been reading a letter when he bumped into her. But who would he be writing? He wasn't in very regular contact with his benefactor. They wrote to each other maybe once per term so he could check in on Ira's progress. 

It was summer now. There was no reason for them to write to each other unless the next term's tuition fees hadn't been paid yet. 

Juliet would have thought that was it if not for the fact that he had a small smile on his face as he walked away, once again reading the letter. He was grateful to his benefactor but did not like him as a person. He wouldn't smile at anything that was written by the man. 

Who would he be writing though? He was notorious for not having any attachments to anyone before becoming friendly with the people who would make up his team to go save the world. 

What could have changed? She had thought only Daisy's arrival messed with things. Was there another transmigrator out there somewhere? Or had she managed to get tangled up with both the protagonist and the villain of this story? 

That seemed incredibly unlikely given how large a country Mirea seemed to be. However…she had never written where Ira had been living before he came to the academy. Only that he was originally from Aveleen and his parents, traveling scholars, had died while in Mirea. 

She had to make up the name of a town for Rukelion Blaze to recuperate in for the sake of the prequel. The May farm was on the outskirts of Cloverfield. Ira couldn't have possibly ended up there, could he?

Juliet wanted to believe it was too farfetched. That there couldn't be such a crazy coincidence. That Daisy's arrival in this world hadn't completely changed the course of the story. 

But she couldn't deny it might have happened. She had already derailed the flow of the prequel simply by being in the right place at the right time. She may have done something to change the main storyline as well. The real question was what. 

If she did know Ira…how had they even met? The odds of that happening were incredibly small but so were the odds of ending up inside of a novel married to the villain. 

Getting sucked into her own book world had proven to Juliet that anything was possible. She couldn't dismiss it simply because it was unlikely and she didn't know how it would have happened. 

She needed more information. If Ira did know Daisy she might be able to use that to her advantage somehow. If she was important to him at all he would want to help her, wouldn't he? That could convince him to get involved. She would have to word things correctly and leave out the king's relation to her while emphasizing that she was in danger from him. 

Was it manipulative? Yes. Juliet didn't care. 

Saving the world was more important than being honest even if it was regarding her favorite character. Though she wouldn't need to skirt around the truth if Ira didn't actually know Daisy.. She had to find that out for certain one way or another before the term started so she could put her plan into motion.