Chapter 38: The Genius Arrives

Arthur woke to the sound of his phone buzzing against the nightstand.

The man opened his eyes slowly, feeling Iris still pressed against his body. His hardening cock tensed against her huge ass, and his fingers were sleepily dug into her boob, as they slept cuddling like that.

Careful not to wake her, he slid out from under her arm and sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

His eyes lingered on the beautiful form of his sleeping teacher for a second, before he left the room and checked his phone.

There were four missed calls from Alan. Arthur frowned; his best friend hardly ever called him, but then he remembered the man was supposed to arrive that day.

"Fuck..." Arthur mumbled under his breath, and called Alan back.

"Took you long enough." Alan sounded overly offended, but he couldn’t hold back his chuckle at the very end. "Did I wake you up by any chance?"

"Kind of..." Arthur admitted with a shrug, while he checked on the living room for his things. It was impossible not to notice how messy the place was.

"Are you at that sexy teacher’s house?" Alan asked, guessing correctly once again. And not hearing any answer, he smiled, knowing he was right. "Damn, sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt your fun."

"It’s fine, as I told you, I was sleeping. Anyway, do you need help moving in?"

"I’m fine, the moving company took care of everything, but if you want, you could come crash at my apartment before class."

Arthur nodded, then checked his phone. It was almost nine in the morning, meaning his first class had already started.

"We are late already," he mumbled. "But send me the address, I think we could miss the first two classes of the day."

"I knew you would agree with me," Alan said, hugging him.

A second later Arthur received a message with the address; it was very close by. Then he checked the mess around him. He felt bad just leaving, so he tried to at least organize things a bit, and cleaned the cum stains.

But actually cleaning that place would take a lot of work.

The walk to Alan’s house was short, but actually getting into his apartment was shocking.

He was living in a relatively spacious place, which probably would have looked much more spacious if it hadn’t been filled with shelves bowed under the weight of manga volumes.

All of the apartment’s curtains were closed, and they all had blackout curtains, not allowing a single ray of light into the place.

Somehow, the apartment felt even messier than Iris’ apartment, even after all their fun. On the way to Alan’s room, Arthur even spotted a telescope in the corner, pointed at the ceiling for some reason.

And just as he expected, his best friend had already built his setup in the new city. He had an office room where his main computer was, along with three monitors. On the left was another computer with a bigger screen that he liked to use for video editing and gaming. To the right was another computer he kept just in case.

"How?" Arthur asked. "How did you turn this apartment into this in a single day?"

"Incredible, right?" Alan asked with a proud smile. "But, actually, I moved in yesterday. I remembered that you told me you would spend Saturday at your teacher’s house, so I gave you a little privacy."

Alan struck a ridiculously proud pose beside his desk, one hand extended toward the computer as if he were unveiling a masterpiece.

"I’ve already optimized the internet connection," he pointed out, gesturing toward the neatly organized cables connected to the computers. "And look at this. Isn’t it cool?"

He clicked a button, and footage from the whole building’s security cameras appeared on his screen.

"Just for safety, I checked and found out they never changed the default password on their camera system. Now I’m wondering if I should tell them or just keep the access."

"You could get access even if they changed the password," Arthur said with a shrug. This was far from the most shocking thing his friend had ever shown him.

"But this is the cool part." Alan clicked another button, showing him the cameras he had installed himself. "I have a special lock on my door, and this room’s door is specially reinforced too."

Arthur nodded, finding all of it a little excessive.

"So," Alan said with a hopeful smile. "Serious question. Do you want to move in with me? This place has two bedrooms, and one of them is currently only storing my coin and bottle collections."

"Like I could ever pay rent for a place like that."

Alan rolled his eyes. "Like I would ever charge you rent. And if you think my apartment is too claustrophobic, feel free to change everything, I just need my room anyway."

"Tempting, but I’m good. Living with Amanda is actually great, I love that we can cook together often, and I will have my own apartment soon anyway."

"So she is your next target? Who would expect my pure and honest Arthur to become such a manwhore? Are you collecting older women by any chance?" Alan asked with a teasing smile, as he already knew about Iris and Vanessa.

"It’s not like that, Amanda doesn’t want anything like that."

"If I recall correctly, you caught her masturbating, then she told you she would be more decent not to tempt you. To me, it sounds like she needs just a small push."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Real life is not like an erotic manga; I would only creep her out."

"They definitely are, at least for you," Alan commented but dropped the subject. "Still, I won’t forget how you chose a woman over living with your best friend. That’s a betrayal I’ll process in therapy."

"You don’t go to therapy."

"I’ll start. For this," he said in a dramatic tone, jumping out of his chair. "Anyway, about this apartment of yours, how much longer do you need to wait?"

"I think I was supposed to have moved in already, but the tenant who is going to leave asked Vanessa for more time. She is just getting ready to move out or something."

Alan nodded, checked his phone and, without a word, took a black jacket off his wardrobe to complete his all-black clothing.

"Now let’s go. We can’t be too late, because I have been summoned by the dark forces," he said, striking an exaggerated pose.

"Summoned?"

"I told you, Principal Gerald wants to talk with me. Now, let’s go, because I must meet your archenemy, as I shall bring him to his end!" he said, taking a spin and pretending his hand was a sword as he made a chivalrous movement toward Arthur.

Or at least something like that, Arthur was not sure what that was supposed to be.

Leaving the building, Alan fell into step directly behind Arthur, almost like his shadow. For the rest of the way, he kept looking down, with his shoulders curled inward.

Then they arrived at their destination.

"Come in, Mr. Vale! I can’t believe we will have Alan Vale as our student!" They didn’t need to introduce themselves; Gerald recognized Alan’s face and invited them in.

Arthur stepped forward, and his best friend followed in silence, entering Director Gerald Hawthorne’s office, which smelled like old wood and expensive cologne.

"What an honor. What an absolute honor to have a mind like yours at our college. We are, all of us, enriched by your presence. This institution believes that brilliance deserves a garden in which to bloom, and I intend to be the gardener, my boy."

The man himself rose from behind his desk to receive them, and his smile arrived a full second before his handshake.

Arthur nodded along politely, and Alan gave a vague response, but he didn’t hear a single word of it.

His focus was on analyzing the enemy’s base.

The office blended a few classical touches with an otherwise modern style. The main desk, for example, wasn’t the big, imposing wooden kind; it was an open concept piece made of clear marble, which allowed anyone to see Gerald’s shoes and legs.

Overall, the place had a cozy atmosphere. Still, between the number of portraits of himself and the rows of books he had written lining the shelves, Arthur could tell the man was a narcissist.

Gerald’s weathered old face wasn’t bad to look at, but even as he praised Alan, his eyes held no real kindness or admiration.

More importantly, Alan noticed something: a small, unremarkable clock hung on the wall, in a strange spot for a clock, especially one that clashed so badly with the elegant room.

It would, however, be a perfect place to hide a camera. Especially one meant to film a woman kneeling below the man’s desk.

Finally, their time in the office ended, and Gerald even offered to show Alan the campus, but Arthur told him he could do that.

Arthur felt a genuine chill of dissonance interacting with the principal; he looked like such a chill and kind man, how could he be the same man who had tried to blackmail her.

The moment the office door closed behind them, the boy exhaled like he’d been holding his breath the whole time.

"I can’t believe this gentle old man is such a monster," he muttered.

"Actually, I kind of expected it." Alan’s voice was flat. "His soul is rotten to the core. I can feel it, my right hand is already trembling with his evil."

He struck a pose, one finger pointed skyward, coat flaring in a wind that did not exist.

"You do know we’re in public, right?" Arthur chuckled.

Alan froze mid-pose. His eyes darted left, right, left again, scanning the empty corridor with mounting despair, and only relaxed when he confirmed they were entirely alone.

"Relax, I’m here. No one’s going to make fun of you anyway." Arthur flexed, which combined with his height would scare off anyone. "So. What do you think? Any ideas?"

"How do you think you’re talking to? I have more than a hundred plans." Alan held up a finger before Arthur could respond. "But first things first. A foundational question, upon which every single one of those plans depends."

He turned to face Arthur fully, and for a moment the eccentric genius act fell away entirely, leaving something cold and precise underneath.

"How flexible are you willing to be with the law?"

Arthur gave him a worried look. "I don’t want you ending up in jail just to help me with this. It’s not worth it."

"You’d go to jail if you got caught," Alan said, with the serene confidence of a man stating the weather. "And I would never get caught."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Just tell me what you are planning."

"No, it’s more interesting if it’s a surprise," Alan smiled. "But don’t worry, we will end this asshole’s life," his eyes became dangerously cold for a second once again. "But first, we have some time before class, so why don’t you show me around?"