Return of the Runebound Professor

“You can’t just say that and leave it there,” Moxie said, crossing her arms. “Explain.”

“I think Lee pretty much summarized it already,” Noah said as he rubbed the back of his head. “I come back to life after I die.”

Moxie’s eye twitched.

“Oops,” Lee said, shifting her feet uncomfortably. “I thought that was what you meant when you said that you’d told her everything. Sorry.”

“I was getting to it. It’s fine,” Noah replied.

“It most certainly is not,” Moxie said. “How is that even possible? You aren’t a Rank 9. Only the gods are immortal. Or are you claiming that–”

“I’m not a god,” Noah said with a chuckle. “And I’m not immortal. I just come back to life after I die. There’s a difference. Immortal people just don’t die. Invulnerable people can’t get hurt. I can do both – I just don’t stay that way.”

“Right,” Moxie said, giving him a dry stare. “And you just… what, magically get a new body?”

“Yup.”

Noah nodded.

“So how does the new one form?”

“Magic.”

Moxie glared at Noah. “That’s not how it works. You don’t get something from nothing. That’s in the realm of Rune Force, and that’s still just manifesting the powers of your Rune without having something to kick them off. You can’t just magically pop out a new body.”

“I’ll be honest, there’s a whole lot I don’t understand,” Noah admitted. “The exact manner in which I got a new body wasn’t really as much as a mystery to me as the part where I came back to life, and there isn’t really much information about this kind of stuff. It’s not something I can research, you know.”

“Okay, that’s a fair point,” Moxie admitted, but she didn’t look like she liked any of the words leaving her mouth. “I’m half tempted to test this claim of yours out right here.”

“Please don’t,” Lee’s features drooped. “The last time he died, it took forever for him to come back. I don’t want Vermil to die. I think his powers might be going away.”

Noah chuckled and ruffled Lee’s hair. “I’m fine, Lee. My powers aren’t going to go away. I’m not going anywhere. I just took a lot of soul damage. It made reforming really slow, I think.”

“But soul damage takes forever to fix!” Lee exclaimed. “It could take you years to properly recover!”

“Try three weeks.” Noah couldn’t keep the smug grin from crossing his features. “I found a way to completely repair my soul. It… might not be sustainable, but there’s potential. Either way, I’m totally fine now and not in any risk. I can go back to getting myself killed as much as I want.”

“To me, it sounds like you want me to kill you,” Moxie said suspiciously. “Are you a masochist?”

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Lee asked, ignoring Moxie and staring up at Noah. “You aren’t lying?”

“I’m fine, I promise.”

Moxie let out a huff. She sat down in her chair and shook her head. “Is there anything else you want to tell me? I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack at any moment, and unless you can pass that revival magic of yours over, I’m not going to be coming back from it.”

“No. Nothing related to my Runes or abilities, at least. The only other stuff is more personal,” Noah said, a heavy weight lifting off his chest. He hadn’t realized quite how heavily hiding just about every part of the truth behind his powers had been weighing on him, but it felt nice to have people he could trust – though he wasn’t quite finished yet. “Lee, I know you’ve probably gathered a lot of this, but there’s a little more about me that I think you deserve to know.”

Lee tilted her head to the side. “More?”

“She doesn’t know either? Gods,” Moxie let out a quick laugh. “Maybe I’ll get to see what my own face looked like when you told me.”

“First, is anyone near?” Noah asked. “Where are the kids?”

“They’re waiting outside,” Lee replied.

“My room has some basic defenses against eavesdropping that I had imbued,” Moxie said. Her cheeks reddened slightly and she looked down. “From when I had to report. I didn’t want anyone to overhear for obvious reasons. They only go down when I want them to, and they’re active at the moment.”

“You’re amazing,” Noah said with a grin. He turned to Lee. “Then I can say this without worrying. I can fix your Runes, Lee. The imperfect ones – I can repair them.”

Lee studied Noah silently. “Making new ones, yeah. I know that’s a possibility. Getting rid of Runes you didn’t combine yourself isn’t too bad, but tossing ones you combined yourself takes chunks of your soul out – and I made a lot of my Runes. I don’t think–”

Noah shook his head. “No. I can fix those Runes too. At least, I know I’ll be able to in the future. I’d need to reach Rank 3 first, and I’d need a way to actually access them, but I know both of those issues can be solved.”

“I… don’t understand,” Lee said slowly. “How can you fix my Runes without giving me massive amounts of soul damage? Something about your soul is different from mine, you know. And don’t forget that, as a demon, my Runes are closely bound to my body. Soul damage is much worse for me than it is for you.”

“I know, Lee. That doesn’t change what I said. I can take Runes apart and rework them as long as I have other, lower tier Runes to replace the less than ideal combination pieces.”

Lee’s eyes widened. “That… are you sure? My Runes are pretty bad. I didn’t have any time or way to test my combinations to make sure they were good, so they’re pretty broken.”

“Doesn’t matter how broken they are. I’ll be able to fix them when I reach Rank 3,” Noah said with a grin. “In the meantime – and this goes for both you and Moxie – you’ll need to get Rank 2 or 1 Runes that you think will work better in your combinations than the current ones. If you start now, then by the time I reach Rank 3, we might be able to take care of everything in one fell swoop.”

Lee and Moxie exchanged a glance.

“You’re sure he’s okay?” Lee asked nervously. “Didn’t hit his head too hard or anything?”

“He’s just as stupid as he normally is,” Moxie confirmed. “But he’s in normal health, as far as I can tell. Maybe we should just kill him to reset things, just in case.”

“Hey!” Noah exclaimed. “I avoid dying for stupid reasons.”

As soon as the sentence left his mouth, he realized it was a terrible idea and sealed his lips, but it was too late. A smug light lit up behind Moxie’s eyes and she raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? So why did you leave a corpse around in your room?”

It was Noah’s turn for his cheeks to redden. “Ah… I was working on something. Trying to heal my soul.”

“By killing yourself?”

“I am going to decide not to answer this line of questioning any further,” Noah proclaimed. “No more, I say. I can’t be forced to incriminate myself. It was all for a good cause.”

He saw the sharkish grins on Lee and Moxie’s faces at the opening he’d left and quickly cleared his throat. The one thing he hadn’t been planning on was to get teamed up on by the two of them.

“The kids have been waiting a while, you know. We should let them in. I think I need to have a chat with them as well.”

“Are you going to tell them everything?” Moxie asked, a flicker of worry passing over her features. “I don’t want Emily to get wrapped too deeply in something dangerous.”

Despite everything the Torrin family has done to her, she still cares about Emily. Damn, Moxie. I wonder if I’d be as kind if I were in her position. And I wonder of Emily knows just how her family has treated Moxie. Emily really seems to care for Moxie, so it would probably devastate her.

As if Moxie could read the look on Noah’s face, she narrowed her eyes and poked him in the chest.

“Don’t say a word about what happened today in the garden.”

Lee’s eyebrows shot up and a knowing grin stretched across her lips. “Oh? What happened in the garden?”

“Stop that,” Noah said curtly. “I just threatened to kill someone.”

Lee’s mouth dropped open. “Without me?”

“Focus, please,” Moxie said, snapping her fingers as if they were a pair of children. “The kids are waiting outside. What are we telling them?”

“Well, Isabel and Todd already know that I come back to life,” Noah said. “And they haven’t combined any Runes yet. I think I’ll eventually tell them, but Moxie’s right – knowing about what I can do with Runes will only put them at more risk. It’s not right to tell them yet.”

Lee and Moxie nodded.

“I’ll let them in, then,” Moxie said. She stepped past Noah and pulled the door open. Almost instantly, Isabel and Todd started pelting her with questions.

“Where’s Professor Vermil?” Isabel demanded. “Is he okay? Why won’t you let us see him?”

“Why’d Lee run in?” Todd asked. “What’s going on?”

“Calm down,” Moxie said, moving back so they could see into the room. “Vermil is fine. He’s fully recovered. There’s nothing to worry about, but why don’t you just come inside so you can see for yourselves?”

Isabel and Todd pushed inside. Their eyes lit up as they spotted Noah standing of his own volition beside Lee. Emily followed them inside, not quite as excited but still looking relieved.

“Professor!” Isabel exclaimed. She paused, gathering herself and quickly wiping most of the relief from her face. “I thought you were bedridden.”

“I survived,” Noah said with a wry smile. “I’m sorry for making you worry. I’ve been told I was out of it for a while.”

Todd nodded empathetically and winced, pressing a hand to his neck and letting out a slight grunt of pain. “Brayden carried you like a bag of potatoes all the way back. He fought monsters with one hand. It was incredible. I’m glad you’re still alive, Professor. I’d hate if we had to find a new teacher.”

“I do tend to prefer myself alive as well,” Noah said. “Is your neck okay, Todd?”

Todd’s lips pressed thin and he shrugged, letting a smile cross his features. “Better than being snapped, yeah. Not perfect though. It still feels a bit off, especially when I make sharp motions. I didn’t exactly have the highest quality healing potion, and there can be side effects sometimes. I survived, right?”

A failure on my part. He shouldn’t have been injured at all.

“We’ll figure something out,” Noah promised. “Did Brayden say anything else about what happened? Where is he now?”

“He just left right after dropping you off,” Isabel said. She wrung her hands together, then caught herself and lowered them back to her sides.

She really does try to put on a calm front, but I think she’s too scared to show that she cares again. After losing her family to a bunch of bastards, I can’t blame her. It’s probably her coping mechanism. I wish I knew more psychology so I could actually help her.

Noah realized that he hadn’t responded and had been standing silently for a few moments. He let a worried frown cross his face. “I hope he’s fine.”

“He’s a badass,” Todd said confidently. “He’ll be okay.”

“Hold on. We’re going too fast,” Emily said, squinting at Noah. “How are you moving around already? Did Moxie get something from our family to heal you? I know it wasn’t your family – Brayden said we shouldn’t trust them. Why aren’t you still bedbound?”

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