It all started on a quietly, autumn late afternoon.
Before she gathered the courage to knock, Liz stared the door for a few moments.
Professor Conrad Schuyler – the engraved sign showed that she's right in front the door of the school's strictest teacher. But she had to enter.
'G-Good afternoon, Professor!' she stuttered. A year passed since she had been officially enrolled into the academy, still she was unsure everytime they had to talk.
He raised an eyebrow with an unimpressed expression.
'H-Headmaster Randolph redirected me to you.' she said and waited him to react.
'For what?'
'H-He said you need some help in arranging documents.'
'It is true. But he sent… you?' he was seemingly disappointed. Liz didn't disagree as she knew that she's very clumsy. The professor sighed and slowly put down his quill.
'Do you see that pile of papers?' he asked and pointed toward a huge rack of papers with his chin.
'Y-yes, Sir!'
'Then you can start to arrange them.'
She nodded and sat down. The professor watched her unsure figure for a while with cold eyes, but as she started to turn the pages, he returned to his own work.
Liz tried hard to figure out what to do exactly, but she was puzzled.
'Uhm… In chonological or alphabetical order?'
'What kind of question is it? Chronological, naturally.' he answered without even raise his head. Though she was curious, it seemed a better idea not to ask what's the aim of what she does. She sighed, and it was the only sound broke the silence in the next two hours. By the time the clock struck 7 p.m., the job was done.
'Is it all or can I go now?' she asked shyly.
'It's all… for today.' Schuyler said.
'For today?'
'Yes. This is what I've said, isn't that?'
'Uhm… okay…' she nodded. 'T-then do I have to come again later?' she asked.
'Well…' he started to speak, and the first time on this afternoon he was thinking about what to answer '…it doesn't matter who comes. If you have a lot of homework to do, then the Headmaster will send an other student. Just let him know your plans in time.'
She nodded.
'G-Good night, Professor.' she blushed.
'Good night.' he answered indifferently.

***
One week later, she arrived exactly at 5 o'clock again. Though they have a common class once a week, it was days before; she couldn't give an answer back then so the professor didn't expect her.
'I could have thought that you don't have urgent homework and you can go again…' he said disapprovingly.
'I'm not a lazy student like you think, Sir! I've done all of my homework in advance for the next week!' she said. It was the first time during the long months they know each other that she talked back to him. He was surprised, but wore his usual poker face.
'Great, then you can come on the next week, too…' he said on dangerous voice, like a threat. She gulped, then tried to divert the topic.
'I-Is that the next portion?' she asked as pointed toward a pile of folders with slightly trembling hand.
'Yes.' he answered shortly and sat back to work.
An hour passed in perfect silence; only the rush of the papers was audible.
'Why did you come back today?' he asked suddenly without raising his eyes from the papers. She startled as it was unexpected that he tries to chat with her. She got goosebumps as his deep voice echoed through the office.
'I've found these documents interesting.' she admitted.
'I see…' he hummed. For some reason, she expected him to say something appreciative about how curious or diligent she is. However…
'However I don't keep you here to read the documents, but to make them in order' he said. Liz grumbled in her mind. Nothing is good enough to him – she thought and huffed silently. She wanted to ask why does he need these documents, but she was too annoyed to start a chat with him. They spent in silence the remained time.

On the next week the Professor was nowhere in the usual time. Liz decided to wander around on the corridor about 10 minutes, then to give up and go back to the dormitory. As it was a grey, rainy day, she couldn't wait to get home, have a hot bath and get in her warm bed. However in the 15th minutes, she realized that even if she should be glad that today's tasks skipped, she is rather disappointed. Liz slowly headed toward the school's door… however she had just saw the Professor, rushing into the building. He carried a wooden box. It looked heavy and Liz thought it is quite big, but he carried it like it was nothing. He slowed and glanced at her. She just realized that his hair and clothes were soaked.
'Do I suppose right that you were ready to go?' he asked with a raised eyebrow.
'I… I-I just didn't know what should I do…' she stuttered. He sighed and nodded toward his office. She followed him without a word.
Arriving to his office, he put down the box. He lit up the all the candles in the office with a quick spell; it made the atmosphere warmer immediately.
'It contains the new papers.' he said as glanced toward the box, and without further words, he got off his cape and hung on. Liz started to work, but her attention was distracted by him. After his cape, he took of his jacket too. Under that, he wore a black shirt. She never saw him like this during the classes. He rolled up its sleeves, slicked his wet haird back and sat down to work. Liz was speechless as she watched him, mainly after noticing a long scar on his left forearm.
'What…?' he asked annoyed after realizing that she stares him. In his head it would never ever ran throught that she saw him… an attractive man.
'Uhm…' Lize blushed, then unexpectedly saved her situation. 'I've just wanted to ask for a while that what's the purpose of this task.' she said. She was seriously proud of herself that she managed to divert the topic about the reason why she stared.
'Can't you put them in order without knowing it?' he asked.
'I-I can…' she said sadly.
'Then do it.' he ordered her.
'…Still…' she sighed and shyly continued. He wondered what happened to her that she talks more than usually. 'Still I'm curious.' she finished the sentence. By the time she finished it, she regretted to start talking again. He sighed.
'I was requested by the Royal Council to collect all the data about a certain period and topic into a book.'
'Whoa…' her eyes sparkled.
'Don't get carried away so much. It's rather about to save out the data and information from old notes into a compact, comprehensive document. Now tons of old documents are lying in different archives. To put it shortly, I will make the extracting of these documents. However it's too much mechanical work to put all the papers in order. That's why we decided to request students' help." he stated. Now he sounded like when he's in the class. Still – probably due to his unusal, unorganized still attractive appereance-, he left on her an impression which wasn't similar to the classes. He put down his quill and turned his glance toward her.
'The book will be named The Great Encyclopedia of the Last Century's Magical Tools in the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Gedonelune' he said. 'The documents you arrange now are the notes of the wizards from Arkaley, Gormsey, Ship's Haven, Tillydrone or Hartlepool. And some of them from Woodhaerst and Garrigill, too. As you probably noticed, these are not only about their magical tools and inventions, but there are also some correspondence. Letters which was written by the era's most and less recognized wizards and witches to each other. Taking care of these documents is an important task for the posterity. We can learn from them, we can study how the thinking about magic and science changed and we can predict these changes in the future, following the old ones train of thought.' he explained on calm voice. He spoke clearly and collected like in the classroom, however now he looked like a talking partner rather than a strict teacher. Liz was honestly impressed by what he said.
'Which one is the more important: to learn from the past wizards' mistakes or to develop further their early inventions?' she wondered with sparkling eyes.
'It's obviously can't be decided as both of them are very important, but I'm glad you used your brain to think further about the topic.' Now she blushed. She wasn't sure about whether it was a compliment or not. Liz rather turned her attention back to the work. Soon she worked so diligent that she didn't notice that Schuyler threw a sly glance toward her. He just noticed how deeply she works and he was surprised. Even though he taught her for a year now, he realized that he maybe she doesn't get enough praise from him.

Weeks had past with diligent work. Liz gradually gain courage to talk to him.

'Professor… in this letter Adalwin Ehrlinger says he had just succesfully fabricated the Half Moon Amber Infused Caldron. However we learn that this tool's inventor is Gotthard Heilprin.' Liz made a puzzled face. Schuyler smirked.

'Just read further Ehrlinger's letters and you'll understand everything.' he said, then thought: or if you don't recognize what was happening, you're not worthy for the answer. He thought it will be a great oppurtunity to test her logical skills. Liz was excited and immersed in the work again.

A few days passed; the rainy weather passed too. It was probably the last sunny day in this fall. Headmaster Randolph found Liz in the yard, lying in the grass, on her cape and reading.
'Good afternoon, Liz' he greeted her cheerfully.
'O-oh, the Headmaster!' she became embarassed. She get up and arranged her hair, checking and hoping that there isn't any grass in it.
'You can stay, I didn't mean to bother you. I was just wondering about what book do you read so diligently recently.' he smiled kindly as he's always happy to see hard-working students.
'It's a book biographical book about Adalwin Ehrlinger.'
'Hmm… I'm sure it's not a homework. We don't teach that book.' he wondered.
'Not, it's not. But the topic picked my interest recently.'
'I see. Ehrlinger was an interesting figure; have fun with the book' he said and walked away smiling, like he would have smiled on something.