Chapter 604 - Walk around the Academy

These kids… it’s almost like dealing with Aaron and Dennis. Maybe I’m truly getting older and grumpier, but when I was younger, we knew how to show respect to a teacher, or we got slapped on the back of the head. I mean, for some reason it happened to me a lot, but that’s not important right now.

I would lament why they’re not all like Izzy, but that might not be fair. Izzy is now close to thirteen years old, and as she grows taller she also changes a bit. I mean, she is still the emotional support of group 4 and the therapist for our guys, as funny as it sounds. But as of late she’s been more rebellious and stubborn at times.

Min‑Jae has been acting strangely ever since the first event of the second tournament. Apparently, Lissandra talked with him, and whatever she said—or whatever conclusion he came to—has made him act… well, weirdly. It’s hard to describe.

Indeed, even after two years and seven floors, I remain the most normal person in this group, and if that isn’t worrying, I don’t know what is.

To add to my mood, I got lost again, and these damn rules stop me from doing wide range scans or floating into the air. Maybe my stubbornness adds to it as well, but it’s not like I have to be somewhere.

So I walk through the academy, which is huge. It’s a mix of the Palace of Versailles, Hogwarts, some expensive private university in the US, and God knows what else.

In some ways, I quite like it, it looks new, nice, and it’s interesting to explore. The gardens, hallways, all these towers and buildings that should have fallen in on themselves, but stand either because of weird materials or inscriptions doing heavy lifting. That likely also means somewhere there is the Core, a control room, multiple mana batteries, countermeasures to locate it, and all that funny stuff. I wonder: would I be able to go through all that without anyone noticing? Is it only considered rude or actually illegal? If it’s only rude, I could totally do it. Not like I care about my reputation.

I step into another garden, this one filled with incredibly detailed animal statues that make me wonder if they were once real, turned to stone. That’s when I see Lily.

She and a few girls and boys sit on a blanket near the fountain and seem to be having lunch. Each student has a personal guard standing just a few steps away, alert and watchful. Nearby, servants move with practiced grace, refilling cups and offering napkins as if these teenagers were royalty. There’s an air of quiet luxury and control, like everything around them is carefully choreographed to ensure maximum comfort.

Even though she’s in the middle of socializing, Lily is very aware of her surroundings, and I’m sure she’s even training while these guys slack. Of course, she notices me right away.

Her neutral face brightens into a huge smile, and without any worry about how it might look or any other thought, she gets to her feet.

One of the boys says something, but she ignores him, so he reaches out to grab her hand, and she swats it away like an annoying fly. Even then, it’s a surprising amount of force, and the boy, or young man, I should say, clutches his wrist, which seems to be broken.

Oh boy.

With a few smooth leaps that, even without using mana, show the strength of her body, she reaches me and stops just before crashing into me.

“Yo!” she says with that bright smile.

“Won’t they think it’s weird you came to greet the Assistant Professor out of nowhere?”

“It’s fine. Tess said if that ever happens, I can just say you’re a family friend or something, and leave it at that without explaining anything else about my background.”

Damn, Tess, have you already predicted Lily would do that and come up with an excuse for her? How scary.

“Well, that’s fine then. Are these guys healers?”

“Kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“Yup. They’re better at healing others than themselves, and most of them are scared of getting hurt. They can’t even regenerate limbs quickly.”

“Well, aren’t healers like nobles? Kept safely somewhere to heal and extend the lives of important people and that kind of stuff?”

“That’s dumb,” she says.

“Yup,” I agree with her, “I mean, isn’t it an insane advantage to heal yourself during combat? I would expect most healers to go that way.”

“Me too! But they said healing skills are very rare, so it’s not worth losing a healer in combat. There’s more value in saving multiple strong people of a similar level to the healer, rather than the healer fighting at that level and maybe dying.”

Once again I shake my head and lower my voice as I see one of the boys coming closer, the one whose wrist Lily broke. “So dumb,” I say.

Lily nods, and the boy, well, young man, joins us with his guard. He has eyes that smile on the outside but seem like they’re stabbing you in the back. At least he can do some healing, as his wrist is already recovering.

“Lily, who is your friend?” he asks with that forced smile.

“Fuck off, Walric,” Lily answers without hesitation.

Both the man and his guard stop, surprise washing over their faces.

“E‑excuse me, Lily?” he asks as if he doesn’t believe her.

“You have five seconds, and then I’ll do the same thing to you I did to Xara and Melori.” She faces him, and even though she’s a head and a half shorter than him, the man backs away.

As he leaves, he doesn’t forget to shoot me that cliché look that clearly blames me for his departure.

When he’s far enough, I ask, “What happened to Xara and Melori?”

Lily shrugs. “We, the ones with student roles in our group, are kind of like transfer students, and they tried to pick on me because I'm new or something, so I… well...yes, defended myself! Of course, nothing too extensive! They’re just kids after all!”

“Aren’t they similar in age to you?”

“They feel like kids, Nat,” Lily says, deflating. “It’s so dumb how sheltered these people are. I know they’re here to learn a bit and pick up some skills before they’re thrown into fights with monsters, but damn, it gets annoying.”

“So it sucks? Dennis and Aaron seem to have fun.”

“It’s not all bad. My room is huge, the bed is amazing, and I even have my own massive bath and training area. There are servants everywhere, ready to do anything I ask. And Nat, the food is so goddamn good. I can also eat so much of it without getting fat, I cannot believe it. Some of the students are nice, snobby, but nice. So yeah, it’s fun, but I think I’ll be bored of it in a week or two.”

As she talks, I remember my small office and, even though it’s nice, it sounds like hers is even better. Damn healers, they sure have it nice.

“Sounds good so far. Aren’t you worried about dear Walric?” I gesture toward the boy, who has awkwardly sat back down with the group.

Lily glances over and then back at me. “Not at all! His uncle is a disciple of one of the Champions or something, but that’s all. I think I could easily beat his guard too if I wanted. He tries to act like he fell for me and makes all these weird faces, but in reality he’s sleazy and wants to ‘charm me’ just in case. All only because I let it slip that my healing skill is [Reconstruction] and it’s apparently a very good skill.”

“Well, just be careful.”

“I will. See you later then! And talk in Community sometimes, you’re the only one who doesn’t much.”

“I will, I will. Later then.”

She leaves to go back to her group, and out of curiosity I open the Community.

NotAaron (Hell, group 4) - nerd

StrongestOne (Hell, group 4) - I’m not a nerd! It’s just that there is so much information in the library!

NotDennis (Hell, group 4) - neeeeerd

StrongestOne (Hell, group 4) - Do I have to give up and be dumb just to get you to leave me alone?

NotAaron (Hell, group 4) - NotDennis does it without trying.

NotDennis (Hell, group 4) - That’s just natural talent. Can’t teach it.

StrongestOne (Hell, group 4) - Incredible. Truly an inspiration.

NotAaron (Hell, group 4) - Don’t hype him up, it only makes him stronger.

I close it again. Maybe I’ll check it later.

But before the window closes for the millionth time, I think, is NotDennis Aaron and NotAaron is Dennis? Or maybe it’s the opposite, as they knew it would be our first thought? Or maybe they knew we would think it would be our thought and think the opposite? But what if they knew we would think that they knew we would think that, and so they did the obvious to seem unpredictable, knowing it would feel too obvious? Or maybe they went even further, thinking that if they did the obvious, people would think it’s a fake-out of a fake-out, and so they’d come all the way back around to assuming the names are reversed, which means they’re not?

The worst part is, I’m sure even if they tell us which one it was, they’ll lie. Or maybe they’ll say the truth because we’ll think they might lie. Or maybe they’ll lie knowing we’ll assume it’s the truth because they expected us to think they might lie, but not actually expect them to lie about it.

These thoughts continue to go through my mind as I continue my walk. The longer I walk, the more surprised I am by the size of this Academy and its facilities. There’s an auditorium big enough for thousands of people, each with quite luxurious seating and enough space for servants to serve them, too.

Then there are training halls with fancy sparring circles and training weapons, some elaborate exercise machines.

There are swimming pools, wellness buildings with saunas, massages, and some other magical wellness things or whatever.

Barbers, hairdressers, shops, tailors, restaurants.

Some buildings are well guarded, locked, and extremely mysterious too.

Overall, I’m sure a person could live here their entire life without missing anything.

Done with my examination, I turn and start walking back along the pathway between the buildings and the garden, which looks more like a forest. The sun is already setting, and some lamps on the side light up with a cozy glow. Well, not like they can compare to my thermal cubes or pyramids.

I walk for a while, and after a few turns, there’s a presence behind me.

Observing the waves and vibrations that person sends, and the length of their steps, I identify it as a woman, likely about as tall as Tess, but I estimate her strength stat is lower. Dexterity and constitution are hard to gauge just from surface kinetic senses I’m using.

After a few more turns, that person still walks behind me, and I detect another presence, much smaller and barely moving, sticking close to that woman.

I stop.

She stops as well.

I start walking.

She start walking too.

Such shamelessness is almost admirable to me.

Out of curiosity, I stop and stand in the middle of the pathway for a full five minutes.

She does the same, stopping in the middle of the path, not caring how weird it might look.

And I still refuse to turn around or use more senses. It takes five more minutes before I finally reach where my rooms are, and there the pathway splits. For the first time, my stalker heads in a different direction.

This time, I turn around and watch her, and our eyes meet.

The woman is wearing clothes that identify her as a Professor, and on top of her head, a big pointy hat like illustrations of witches tend to show. She also has a long black robe over her clothes.

On her shoulder sits a tiny brown owl with huge eyes that watches me as well. Its body isn’t moving at all, but its head turns like a human would twist their neck. That tiny owl is very cute.

My stalker finally disappears from sight, and I decide to visit my office to grab a few things before heading to my room.

Even before I reach it, I know something is wrong. The locks I added in addition to the original ones are gone. Well, maybe “gone” isn’t the right word. They are still there, just a tiny bit different, as if someone removed them and then attempted to replace exactly the same ones, which shouldn’t be that difficult since I didn’t put much effort into them, not expecting something like this at all.

I unlock the room and enter, only to immediately notice the change.

One of the two big wooden boxes my sister gave me is missing.

Someone has stolen my thermonuclear warhead.

***

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