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"So, what's the Martial Academy like?" A young girl asked with curiosity.

"How many times have you asked that question Rita?" Rui sighed helplessly

"Oh come on, just tell!" Rita insisted.

"After dinner. Focus on your food, I see you've barely eaten anything." Myra interjected.

"Awww..." Rita pouted.

All of them had gathered in the dining room. Lashara had made it a point to ensure everybody eats together. Every day, dinner would begin only after everybody was in the dining room, ready at their tables.

('Probably to strengthen the sense of kinship between us.') Rui mused.

And it worked. Blood-related or not, eating together always conveyed a sense of togetherness like no other group activity, it really hammered in the idea that they actually were family. This was one of the many reasons Rui had grown deeply fond of the Quarrier Orphanage.

Rui glanced around. In the past thirteen years the Quarrier Orphanage had grown tremendously. As many of the adolescents from thirteen-years ago had grown up and decided to remain with the Orphanage. Even those who had gotten married and shifted away from Orphanage among the second generation, still supported it when they could afford to.

Farion, Horatio and Mica were now full-fledged adults that had gotten into manual labour, while women like Nina worked in restaurants and bars. Together along with the first generation of adults of the Orphanage, Lashara was able to adopt and care for children with a much lesser burden.

One source of income that truly helped the Quarrier Orphanage was that of Julian's. Despite obtaining a prestigious position in the Kandrian Institute of Sciences as an apprentice scholar in the Research and Development department, he never forgot his roots. He still resided with the home he grew up with, and aided the family that had put a roof over his head, and food in his belly and given him love and care when he was alone in this world.

He had obtained a middle-class occupation, allowing him to pay back everything he believed he owed to the Orphanage.

Rui intended to do the same. He had no intention of living elsewhere. What was the point? He had a loving family, there was no need of going through the extra expenses of getting his own place, only to live a lonely life.

('Once I start working as a Martial Squire, I'll give all the income I don't need to the Quarrier Orphanage.')

Even on Earth, Rui had led a frugal life. He didn't even bother owning his own place, he lived in an apartment. He tossed all his income into the bank where it rotted for several decades until his health deteriorated drastically near the end.

Still, this life was different. He still hadn't learnt as much as he'd like about Martial Artist occupations. He wasn't sure how much of his income would be needed to for his occupation. Maybe Martial Artists used gear like armour, knives, swords?

Or maybe, they needed a large amount of funds for the learning and training resources needed to grow stronger. After all, he highly doubted that the Martial Union was unable to provide any aid to lower ranked Martial Artists. It's possible they even had a monopoly on the learning resources, and exchanged them for particular services, thus incentivizing Martial Artists to always remain loyal and associated with the Union.

('Well, all of this isn't relevant at the moment.')

He had to first become a Martial Squire and graduate from the Academy before he could even think about the details of working as a Martial Artist.

"You said the Academy would begin in thirty days right?" Nina inquired.

"Yeah."

"You'll be staying in the academy the entire time?"

Rui nodded.

"That's a shame." Nina shrugged.

"Don't worry." Rui reassured. "They have breaks in between. I'll definitely come back during the breaks."

"How often are they?" Lashara asked, hoping they a frequent as possible.

"Seasonally. The first break after the start of the academic year will be the Spring break, right around the Spring Festival, according to the information guidebook." Rui explained.

"I see." Lashara sighed. It wasn't as much as she'd hoped, but still better than the worst-case scenario.

"How long will the breaks be?"

"Around five days or so." He responded.

"That's it?" Horatio grumbled.

Rui shrugged. "That's it, yeah. Can't do anything about the rules."

The reason for the shorter break was due probably to ensure the students' discipline wasn't broken due to extensively long breaks.

"On the other hand, it's nice they're letting you out during the Spring Festival, meeting you after so long, and having you with us to celebrate it will make the festival even more special.

"That's true." Rui smiled melancholically.

Now he that he had gotten his hands on the Academic Calendar, he knew that he would see his family much less frequently. A meagre four times his year.

('It's a shame I can't live here once the Academic year begins.') Rui sighed inwardly.

Ideally, he would have liked to stay at home and commute to school daily. This was a norm for students his age in most schooling systems on Earth. He wasn't fond of being ripped apart from his family. Though the significance of the Martial Academies was admittedly higher than schooling systems back on Earth.

"Still, you'll be leaving in a week." Alice muttered, on the verge of tears.

"Don't worry Alice, I'll always come back. You're my precious big sister after all." Rui assured, with a smile.

"Oh you...!" She rushed to hug him, overwhelmed with emotion. The gesture triggered yet another round of affection and fawning, which Rui duly received and reciprocated. As the sole cause for their emotion, he did not dare complain about this. It wasn't as though people hadn't left the orphanage before, but this was indeed the first time that someone as young as him was leaving the Orphanage for as long as he was. On one hand they were happy for him, on the other they would miss him dearly.