The familiarity had clicked to him upon their first meeting, but he'd brushed it off. The Queen had made no mention of anyone else working a case inside the college, after all, and surely their presence would be worth mentioning. Plus, the moment the man had gone head-over-heels down the steps upon his first day at Weston had made it excessively easy to tell himself that this was just some human twit that looked as though he could be a twin.
Still, even then his eyes had flicked towards the left hand, trying to spot any sign of the black lines that would make his identity very clear. But it was pointless. 'Vice Principal Agares' wore gloves, and so did most of the teachers here. It'd be rather odd to ask him to remove them, anyway, and there wasn't really a valid reason for such a request - not to mention it'd probably be taken as some form of rudeness.
That didn't stop the first few nights from being uncomfortable. Every time he slipped under his covers and closed his eyes to try to sleep it resulted in the phantom feeling of something against his ankle, making him jump and scramble to check under his covers - nothing. Of course there was nothing. He was just being paranoid. It was a ridiculous thing to be paranoid over - Agares wasn't Faustus. No demon could be that uncoordinated, even Faustus.
Eventually, the ghostly sensations had stopped, and the Earl returned to focusing completely on the matter at hand. If Agares taught at all, it must have been to students of another house or students of the upper years. It didn't matter, though. Simply meant the only times he caught sight of the man was if they passed in the hallway, which was fine by him. There were more important things to keep his attention on - like that sneaky little bastard making him look like a fool.
Once that was over and done with, though, and he'd partially achieved a step towards finding out what was going on with the transfers - though Harcourt had managed what he couldn't and gotten the position of Prefect's Fag, meaning the little prat had access to those Midnight Tea Parties while he was stuck as the Prefect's Fag's Fag - he had the time to consider a few things, along with his next move. He was going to have to get rid of Clayton if he wanted a shot at being Bluer's Fag, but he couldn't do that too soon after getting Cole out of the way. He didn't need them getting suspicious.
Almost unconsciously, Ciel spent the next few days scanning the crowds through the halls and across the grounds, searching for yet another familiar face that shouldn't be here. Nothing.
One thing that continued to jump to the forefront of his mind, though, with how close he'd gotten to the P4, was this mysterious 'Principal' and the man that appeared to act in his stead in public. Why was the Principal of Weston so secretive that he wouldn't interact with anyone but a very select eight? What was there for him to hide?
Catching sight of Agares once again in the hallway between classes, Ciel found himself pausing, staring. The familiarity was just… too much to be a random coincidence. He was tempted to go take Sebastian's glasses and shove them on 'Agares' face just to prove it to himself. But, the presence of this man that he was certain was really the Trancy butler had something occurring to him.
What if the Principal was so secretive because he, technically, wasn't old enough to be considered a Principal? A child could not be in charge of a school full of children. No one in their right mind would send their children to such a school… And it could possibly explain these random transfers. Not to mention, who would really trust a demon to operate on their own, with little to no guidance? Even he didn't trust Sebastian to follow orders correctly for long periods of time if he wasn't there to be sure he was keeping in line.
If Claude was here, Alois had to be here. And if he couldn't find Alois prowling around the grounds, and the man supposedly in charge of this place refused to let his face be shown to the public… Alois wasn't a student. That much was certain.
The dark-haired man had caught him staring, had lifted a questioning brow, but the Earl made the first move, approaching him. Smiling politely - because there was other students around and that was expected of anyone approaching a member of authority - he waited until he was close enough to be heard, and then lowered his voice further, "So," light, conversational, just in case anyone could actually hear him, "how's that little so-… Earl you're stuck babysitting? Alois?"
A blank stare. A blink. No sign of shock, or that he understood what he was asking. "Excuse me, Phantomhive?" An attempt at playing innocent, but there was a hint of warning that could easily be passed off as a non-verbal threat towards the fact he'd quite nearly let some foul language slip. Or a warning not to insult his master with him within ear shot.
"Nothing, sir," still light, still casual, still forcing himself to keep the polite smile in place, "seems I've confused you for someone else. My mistake." Turning away before he could be punished, the Sapphire Owl student continued down the corridor with the crowd - two could play innocent, after all. He only paused when cries of shock and concern sounded behind him, the boy looking back to work out what had caused the sudden fuss. Students were bunching around the top of the stairs, and, looking towards the foot of them, and moving back so he could lean up to peek over shoulders and the banister quickly answered his silent question.
Another fall face-first.
Perhaps Claude quite enjoyed giving everyone around him enough reason to laugh themselves silly over his false clumsiness.
Or he honestly needed those glasses.
