20 Prelude

"Why are you here, Jake?" Daniel voiced his dismay when he saw a familiar figure approaching him from the entrance of the military academy.

"Of course, I'm here?" Jake retorted as though it was natural for him to be here. "I wouldn't be rest assured until I see for myself if my best friend can handle the harsh envirnonment of the military."

Daniel felt a little speechless when Jake acted as though he was being sent to prison instead of transferring to a different school. He rolled his eyes and couldn't help but note, "I'm just coming here for a tour of the facilities, it's not like I'm going to be forced into a bootcamp by the instructors here just for coming."

"...Okay fine, if you want the truth, I'm just bored and wanted to spend more time with you!" Jake spoke in an exasperated tone. "Jeez, can't you read the mood sometimes? I'm trying to act like a good friend here, but you just have to trample upon the good will between us like that."

Daniel was a little speechless at the other's shamelessness so he only shook his head with a sigh before heading into the military academy, ignoring the person following him from the side.

***

The EU Military Academy is located deep within the Alps. It is divided into three areas: The mountain valley area, the mountaintop area, and the underground area. Just as their name suggests, the academy held classes within the vicinity of a mountain wholly owned by the school. The bottom of the mountain are where most of the lessons are held. Meanwhile, there are multiple barracks across different levels of the mountain used as a space for students to train at locations with thinner atmospheres and lower pressures in order to strengthen their lung capacity and allow for them to get used to a lower oxygen environment.

Finally, the underground area is located deep inside the mountain where professors conduct their research, with many of these being confidential. Therefore, most of the area are restricted and not available to students.

Jake took the trip to the academy through his father's private automated car while Daniel took public transportation. However, all vehicular transportation can only stop before the entrance of the academy, with the only method of travelling within the campus being on foot. There's also a no-fly zone area around the campus so a helicopter is out of the question as well.

From the looks of it, even though it was the weekend, the entire academy still seemed to be buzzling with people even when no class was being held. Although it was already late in the morning, there were still many students dressed in green jogging around the campus.

When the two teenagers walked in, they were immediately welcomed by a bunch of curious gazes from nearby students, with most of them focused on Daniel. This made Jake slightly jealous as he pouted and said with a grievance, "Why's everyone staring at you? Obviously, I'm sexier and much more handsome than you, but none of them even batted me a glance! Did you pay them off earlier just to show me how popular you are?"

Daniel rolled his eyes and elbowed Jake's shoulder before stating in a matter-of-fact manner, "All of them must be staring at me due to my resemblence to my father. Since everyone here are military brats, they would know of my father's face very well as it's recorded in many of the military textbooks. My face look similar to him so it wouldn't be surprising for people to take notice of me."

"Oh, that actually makes sense." Jake wiped the fake sweat off his brows in an exaggerated manner and said, "Phew! I thought your spring is coming for a second there."

Daniel wanted to make a retort but didn't know what to say. In the end, he simply shut his mouth an increased his walking speed, forcing Jake to follow behind while panting, "Hey, slow down! I haven't exercised in months here! OMG! Why won't they even allow automated buggy cars at this place! If I have to walk this far to school every day, I would have died a hundred times already."

Daniel simply ignored him as he continued to walk. Before long, they arrived at the Student Center Building located close to the center of the mountain valley district of the academy.

Entering through the building, Jake immediately found a seat and collapsed on top of it as he panted heavily. Daniel gave the other a rather disdainful sneer before leaving Jake to his own devices as he needed to go and find the person responsible for organizing his tour.

It seemed that Daniel is quite lucky today as there was nobody lining up at the Student Services counter located by the side of the wall.

"Hello. My name is Daniel. I've previously contacted one of the administrators here to arrange a tour of the facilities here today?" Daniel spoke in a professional tone as he placed his left wrist on the table.

"Please wait a moment sir." The receptionist on the other side of the desk replied. Daniel observed the person before him and found that she must also be a student of the military academy from her age and the fact that she was wearing the standard military uniform here.

The woman scanned Daniel's wrist, revealing all of Daniel's information before her holographic computer. After typing quickly on the holographic keyboard before her without a sound, she looked up again and said with an amiable tone, "Mr. Daniel, please take a seat first. Ms. Amelia will be here to escort you around the campus soon."

Daniel nodded in reply before taking a seat beside Jake. When Jake took a look towards his friend's direction, he couldn't help but take another few good looks at the female receptionist in front of him. After Daniel landed on his seat, Jake immediately shook on his arm and whispered next to his ear, "Hey, don't you think that girl there is hot? It seems that the rumors about this place being filled with gorillas are wrong after all."

"Are girls the only thing you could think about?" Daniel retorted.

"I'm 16 years old, what do you think?" Jake gave a slap on Daniel's back and glared at the latter as though his question was now was completely stupid. "If I don't think about girls, what else can I think about?"

"Maybe think about your homework instead?" Daniel sneered. "If you spent the same amount of energy on your homework as you do in chasing after girls, then at least you wouldn't need to take make up classes like you are now."

"Wait, aren't you supposed to say 'I might have gotten straight A's by now' or something more positive? Where's your confidence in me? Where's your faith? I thought we were friends!" Jake cried like as though he had just been wronged and had nothing to live for.

"It's because we're friends that I know exactly what you're like." Daniel spat. "Even if you use your brain to your advantage, I'll be surprised if you can even pass Elementary Special Relativity and Elementary Quantum Gravity."

Piercing an imaginary sword straight through Jake's heart, Jake acted as though he had just been impaled and fell in an exaggerated manner down towards the row of chairs beside him, acting as though he had just died. Daniel, in response, simply ignored the other's drama and waited until Jake sat back up by himself acting as though nothing had happened.

At this time, after waiting for about 10 minutes, the person that Daniel and Jake had been waiting for finally arrived.

"Hello, my name is Amelia. We spoke on the phone yesterday?"

A mature woman looking to be in her 30s approached the two teenagers with a smile, raising her hand for a handshake. Daniel immediately stood up in response and shook the hand lightly as he introduced himself, "Daniel. Thank you for arranging a tour for me in such a short notice, Ms. Amelia. I hope I didn't cause too much trouble."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all!" Amelia chuckled slightly before continuing, "It's an honor for a person like yourself to visit our academy when you have that many choices to choose from. I just hope our facilities would satisfy you so you'll consider coming to our school in the future."

"You sure jest, Ms. Amelia." Daniel gave a polite smile in return. "With its reputation, there's no military school within this continent that can even be compared to the EUMA. I'm sure I'll enjoy this tour very much."

"Oh, and this is?" Amelia finally noticed the person standing next to Daniel. Since Jake wasn't invited, she didn't think that Daniel would bring a guest with him since the latter did not inform her about the matter.

"Jake. Son of Paul, CEO of Finite Corporation." Jake introduced himself in a proud tone, obviously trying to increase his own image before Amelia after feeling pissed about being ignored for a whole minute.