MR MALGLOCUNOS
When the bell rang, we packed up to go for our next class. Every lesson was in a different classroom with different students - not necessarily from your form class. This was because even though we were all in the same year and classes, some girls would be taking certain subjects at a higher level, some girls would have private lessons and be exempted from some subjects, and some girls would be in examinable electives that they could use to replace regular subjects. Privileged kids had very complicated educational needs.
I would only see my form class a few times a week. Today, I had form class at the end of school. Usually, that'll mean that we'd be dismissed late because our teacher would have to make announcements and then assign our student leaders to use the rest of the time to plan some kind of class project or event, and it would drag on until our teacher got tired or hungry… I guess you'd have to meet my form teacher to understand.
My form teacher was one of the rare "Sirs" in our all girl's school. Mr Malglocunos (we just call him Sir for short) taught lycan history and his favorite phase was, "It'll work out… eventually." Maybe if one was to study as much lycan history as he did, one would draw the same conclusion.
Sir was initially supposed to be teaching the Lorent Academy boys, BUT he transferred over because he preferred high school girls, "The hallways smell better here."
I was beginning to feel like all the teachers in the Lorent Girls' School School were fundamentally flawed. But Lala rather liked Mr Malglocunos (Let's just call him Mr Mal or Sir.)
Based on all Lala's class interactions with him, Mr Mal was the sort of teacher that wouldn't have survived in a public high school. He placed very little import on classroom discipline, and probably only survived because he was always the form teacher to the top class where half the girls took private lessons anyway.
For example, some girls had shown him the cookies we baked at cooking class, "Try one, Sir."
The moment he ate it, they cheered, "Oh! Sir is eating in class! That means we can eat in class too!"
"2 more." Sir said, "Give me 2 more and I'll close the other eye."
"But Sir," Robin, my desk mate raised her hand and shouted across the room, "You already ate one! So it should only cost another cookie to close both eyes."
"Yes, but if you give me 2, I'll also keep an eye out for the witches." Sir would promise.
All the girls laughed. We rewarded him with 4 more cookies - one for each wicked witch.
"That's why high school girls are the best!" Sir sighed happily as he settled back behind his desk.
"Sir! Don't forget, you're the lookout!" Robin bossed.
"Hai, hai." Sir waved it off, "Be quiet and let me enjoy my cookies."
There was also this time when someone came to class with an entire paperbag of nail stickers for the "student initiated class bonding activity". We all did our nails which I guess was a bonding activity. Technically, our class activity was breaking a school rule together, but Sir wasn't aware of all the rules so it wasn't an issue.
He wouldn't let us do his nails though, "No, I'm a man. I don't want rabbits and pigs on my nails."
"That's a cat and a puppy, Sir." One of the girls informed him.
"You're lying! How is this a cat?" Sir accused, "Cute high school girls shouldn't lie!"
And we would all laugh at him.
Like I said, I don't think Sir was school teacher material. I asked Lady Amber about Sir (Don't worry, I was careful not to get him in trouble), and she informed me that Mr Malglocunos was a very respected Lycan History teacher from the Gold Packlands. A lot of people didn't know, and I was supposed to keep it to myself, but his daughter was born weak and unable to shift. He transferred with his family to the Lorent Pack so his daughter could receive healer care on a regular basis. Unfortunately, his daughter passed away before her 20th birthday, still unable to shift. It was very sad. But at least the healers were able to prolong her life by a couple of years. She studied and graduated from the Lorent Girls' School. Lady Amber remembered her as a quiet and gentle girl. That was many years ago though.
Lady Amber confessed that she usually didn't employ male teachers, but he was a good teacher, an expert in his field, faithful to his mate, and treated all the girls as his own daughters.
My own Alpha Dad had always been Dad, so it was kind of weird to think there were fathers like Sir who was so happily bullied by his high school "daughters" on a daily basis.
In the entire Lorent Girl's school, there were only 3 male teachers. They were all mated with pups of their own. Parents of princesses send their daughters to a girls' school for a reason, and it was the responsibility of the school to respect their expectations. Lala thought that was admirable, but now I think it was troublesome, just like everything else in Lala's life.
I had to admit, I was going to blame Lady Amber for being a bad influence on me and making me believe I had to live with so many troublesome things.
But Lady Amber was the kind of woman who would take the trouble to make things happen. To empower girls, to enrich her student's learning journey, fund her school, and convince all the old stubborn males sitting on the board that this school was worth investing in.
"We always say the future is in the hands of the next generation, these girls - they are the future lunas and mothers of our pups. Surely education and a robust and enriching environment for personal growth will equip these young ladies and build up the generation after them. They may be just young she-wolves today, but remember, they will also one day be the alpha's mother."
So although it was true that the Lorents Girls' School sounded like a snobbish school blowing its own horn repeatedly about how nearly half the Lunas in our continent were alumni of our school, it was really just the publicity to consistently justify our private girls' school existence and the funding support such a school requires.
The school had come a long way form its humble beginnings when Lady Amber would invite a handful of young ladies to her drawing room to teach them to read, but I digress…
Anyway, even though it wasn't the end of the day yet (most unfortunately T.T), I was going to Mr Malglocunos' class now because my next class was lycan history. And Lady Amber wasn't wrong to say Sir was a good teacher. Lycan History was my favorite class because it was actually interesting. Sir would just randomly start a conversation with the class, and lo and behold, we would have explored another chapter of our textbook and the issues behind it.
He was a very good lycan teacher, the rare talent who could teach the way the Great Teacher prescribed - you know, all that teach students to ask the right questions, and every experience is a gate to wisdom, and stuff like that.
"Hi, La!" Robin dumped her bag at the empty seat next to mine.
I smiled because I was happy to see her too. Robin was a fun deskmate.
Robin sat down, "I bet Sir is going to be late for class again."
Well the Great Teacher never said the teacher had to be punctual for his own lesson…
"I saw your post this morning… I mean, I guess everyone had seen it." Robin told me, "It was all that the girls could talk about all first period."
"What's there to talk about?" I asked, "It's just my stupid brother being a jerk."
Robin looked surprised, "Woah, La."
And then she laughed, "I didn't know you could talk like that."
Oh, opps. I forgot how nice La was.
"Its just because its my stupid brother." I decided to blame Fluffy for my accidental slip in character, "He's always doing stuff like that."
"Hahaha." Robin laughed, "So Princess La has problems in her life too."
Yeah, I'd tell you, but you wouldn't believe it.
"Anyway, your "stupid brother" is really hot." Robin informed me, "But don't quote me on that, it's the other girls who said it."
Sir came into the classroom at this point, "Oh, all of you are early."
"No, Sir! You're late!" One of the girls informed him.
"Is that so?" Sir looked about, "Ah well, better late then never."
"Then come later, Sir!" Robin shouted back, "La and I were having an important conversation."
No, Robin. Telling me that the other girls thoughy Fluffy was hot was not important conversation.
"Oh, sorry ladies." Sir smiled, "Please don't mind me. Go on, we're all ears."
But of course there was no way Robin was going to tell the whole class about what she heard about my stupid hot brother.
"I don't feel like talking anymore." She decided.
"Good, then its my turn." Sir happily walked back up to the front of the class, "Today, when I woke up, my mate told me to bring an umbrella to school because it would rain."
This was met with a mixed response:
"My mum said that too."
"What? It's going to rain?"
"Nobody wanted to hear about your morning, Sir."
And that was how our lesson about the Unification of the Colored Mountains started. (It was a long story.)
At the end of it, I realized how the consolidation of power happened more out of necessity than anything else. I mean, I had always thought it was because the Black Wolves on Black Mountain were aggressively expanding their territory because... I don't know, black wolves were aggressive and territorial. But there were a lot of other factors too. Social and Economic security (so it wasn't just about land), political forces (including alliances between various factions in each mountain), and natural conditions like torrential rain and land slides, and gyaara stampedes in the valleys which required a more unified emergency response from its surrounding mountains.
And yes, also because Black Wolves were aggressive and territorial, so they just had to keep warring and expanding their territories... But, there were a lot of other factors that eventually made the other Colored Mountains submit to Black Mountain's centralized government.
And this was only for a few centuries. After the First Unification, the Colored Mountains would continuously centralize and decentralize their government, but the King's Seat was always in Gate City, and the Royal Courts in the Black Mountains.
I raised my hand, "Why do they keep changing their system?"