The spacious faculty lounge hummed with quiet murmurs as professors and instructors gathered.
Some seated around polished wooden tables.
Others leaning against walls or peering out of tall, arched windows.
The topic of the hour was unusual and divisive, drawing everyone's attention away from their usual duties.
"A student... acting as a professor?"
A stern-faced woman with steel-grey hair said, her voice dripping with skepticism.
"And not just any student—Noah Ashbourne.
What on earth was Scarlet thinking?"
Several others nodded.
Their faces etched with varying degrees of doubt and disapproval.
"Scarlet rarely thinks in ways that align with the rest of us..."
A wiry man with a thin mustache quipped.
His comment drew a few chuckles, though the humor was short-lived as the gravity of the situation returned.
"But to appoint Noah Ashbourne, of all people?