Prologue
“I may be on the side of the angels, but don’t think for one second that I am one of them.”
— Sherlock Holmes
Ever since he was a little boy, Henry Joseph has been interested in all kinds of stories. From the ancient Greeks and Romans in the Hellenistic period to the Lords and Ladies in the Middle Ages. Everything which included some type of adventure, mystery or new discovery sparked his interest, which explains why history was his favourite subject all throughout middle and high school.
Henry never failed to find a book and make it interesting, even the most boring subjects were intriguing to him. One of his most beloved books has got to be The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Henry had a soft spot for detective stories and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really knew how to write them, so Henry never lost his engrossment in one of the many endeavours of his favourite detective living in Baker Street.
The one he enjoyed reading the most in the bundle of stories was none other than The Final Problem. Henry admired the way the detective met his ‘end’, in a blaze of glory. But luckily for Henry, Sherlock’s adventures didn’t end at that. Sherlock Holmes was still alive, having won the struggle at Reichenbach Falls and sent Jim Moriarty to his doom-though nearly meeting his own at the hands of Moriarty’s henchmen.
When it was time for Henry to choose what he wanted to make a career out of, he caught himself being indecisive. Would he pursue a career related to history? Was he going to get more involved in the world of crime-solving? What if he wanted to become an explorer and discover new parts and pieces of the world? But little did Henry know it was inevitable that he was going to study English language and literature at the University of Oxford, led by none other than Christian Deacon.
Christian Deacon, more commonly referred to Professor Deacon, was an Englishman in his late thirties. Having studied at Oxford University himself during his adolescence, he grew to love the school and made it his target to become a teacher there one day. As of now, he has been a Professor and tutor for numerous English Literature students through the course of eight years with many more years to come-or so he hopes.
He led a simple life; he wasn’t married, nor did he have any children, the only one-or thing he loved was his job. Like Cicero once said, ‘If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.’ It was a quote the man lived by. Professor Deacon lived in a rather modern cottage close by the university. Most days he walked to his work, or if it was breezy, he went by bike. When his day at the university came to an end, he would unwind with a book and a cup of tea- not before watering the plants in his garden though.
The man didn’t have any worries, most of it he must thank to his simple lifestyle. However, that lifestyle was about to have a change in routine once the new school year came around and the curly-haired professor had to welcome his new class of students; George Coxon, Michael Harrington, Lee Jaehyun, Florence Waters and last but not least, Henry Joseph, the boy who would slowly turn Professor Deacon’s life into a whirlwind of chaos.
