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🕑 Added 2025-09-02 07:44:41 +0000 UTCA simple priest... Or so I thought
Chapter 33 – A Curious Student
“Your room is being prepared for you and your companions,” said Larissa, seated at her desk with a much colder tone.
“Don’t worry, they won’t be staying here.” Jonathan turned his head toward the headmistress and instead asked, “What do you know about the murders?”
“The same as you.”
“Be more specific. We have three people dead near this academy, and it’s clear the killer was a dark entity with very large claws,” Jonathan said coldly, cutting off any chance for Larissa to hide what she knew.
Larissa narrowed her eyes, maintaining her composure. Her tone was icy, but her upright posture betrayed that she was on the defensive. “Nevermore does not defy the Healing Church or the Belmonts. We are a refuge, not a threat. What happens outside these walls is the concern of the authorities, not this academy.”
“A refuge… interesting choice of words. You know as well as I do that a refuge can become a lair. The Healing Church does not tolerate sanctuaries that turn into incubators for monsters. And believe me, Mrs. Weems, for the Belmonts a single suspicion is enough to light the pyre.” Jonathan mocked her with the freedom in her words.
After hearing this, Larissa leaned slightly forward and said harshly: “And what would happen if an entire institution decided that Belmont supervision is excessive? Do you intend to declare war on hundreds of young people who are barely discovering who they are?”
Jonathan didn’t react. “If Nevermore openly challenged the Healing Church, the consequence would be only one: immediate closure and purge. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about wolves, seers, or teenage gorgons. To my family and to the Church, all would be anomalies to be contained.”
The air in the office seemed to grow heavier. Weems did not back down.
“So what you’re telling me is that, in truth, our autonomy is an illusion. The very existence of Nevermore depends on us bowing before the fear you inspire. A chain disguised as supervision.” Larissa criticized Jonathan’s stance harshly, as if she didn’t care who he was.
Jonathan calmly rose from his chair, letting his shadow stretch across the headmistress’s desk. “Don’t call it fear, Headmistress. Call it order. Darkness doesn’t need much to devour this world. And if your academy insists on challenging that reality, it will become another battlefield. Believe me, you don’t want Nevermore to appear on the blacklist of my family or the Healing Church.”
A deathly silence filled the office. Larissa held the hunter’s gaze without blinking, knowing that any sign of weakness would be seen as submission.
“I’ll do my job, you’ll do yours. I expect your cooperation, and if I ever find out you’ve hidden something from me, be aware of the consequences.” With those words, Jonathan left the headmistress’s office.
Once outside, he wandered through the academy aimlessly, lost in thought.
He wasn’t an evil man—his hatred toward dark entities was instinctual, a side effect of inhabiting a body that wasn’t his own.
Besides, his abilities hardly allowed him to feel anything but disgust toward monsters that murdered people. He didn’t blame the innocent—he knew most of the students at this academy were different.
And he knew the truth behind Tyler’s actions. Still, it was his duty to eliminate him.
“Are you here to kill students for sport?” At that moment, one of the many figures passing by asked Jonathan a very strange question.
Turning around, Jonathan was slightly surprised by who stood before him. “Do you know who the monster is?”
“I don’t. But if I did, I’d tell you—with one condition: that you let me watch your cruel slaughter.” Wednesday stared straight at Jonathan, able to feel the darkness surrounding him, which made her feel at ease.
Jonathan recalled the peculiar personality of the girl before him, and knowing what the world had become, he replied, “You speak as if death were a spectacle.”
Without hesitation, Wednesday said, void of emotion: “It is. The difference is that most people shy away from it; I prefer to sit in the front row. Or are you going to tell me that the Belmonts don’t enjoy it a little when they burn a creature at the stake?”
Jonathan frowned, weighing the venom in her words. “The difference, Miss Addams, is that we do it out of duty, not for pleasure.”
With the faintest of smiles, Wednesday said: “A lie. Duty is the perfect excuse to mask fascination. And if I’m wrong, then why do I feel that shadow around you smile every time I speak of a purge?”
For a moment, Jonathan stayed silent. The girl had read him with uncomfortable precision. Killing dark entities made him stronger, ensured this world was safer—and he enjoyed that.
“If you knew who you were speaking to, you’d choose your words more carefully.” Jonathan began walking toward a less populated area.
“If you knew who you were speaking to, you’d know I don’t know how to keep quiet.” Wednesday followed close behind, ignoring the stares of the other students falling on them.
A group of students passed nearby, whispering among themselves, and Jonathan averted his gaze for just a second—long enough for Wednesday to tilt her head in morbid curiosity.
“I want to see you work. I want to see how you cut the line between what you call monster and what you call human. Maybe then I’ll decide which side I’m on.”
This time Jonathan couldn’t help but laugh. “If you’re useful to me, I might let you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to place some wards around this academy.”
