21 The School

Amelia gave Jake a look of surprise before instantly changing her behavior towards this friend of Daniel's that came uninvited.

"Oh, what an honor it is, Jake!" Amelia gave a smile that seemed somewhat forced, instantly protruding her hand out for a handshake.

Jake gave a firm squeeze against the woman's hand and replied with a rather arrogant smirk, "Thank you. I guess you have heard of me after all."

Daniel could not help but roll his eyes at Jake's behavior. He could not believe that his best friend would just reveal the identity of his father in front of everyone like that just so he could show off. However, with that personality of his, Daniel was not too surprised either. Within his heart, he just prayed that this friend of his wouldn't embarass him too much during this tour, or else he would be too embarassed to come back in the new semester even if he had finished all the transfer procedures.

***

After gaining knowledge of Jake's backing, Amelia tried her best to try and smoothen out her relationship with this teenager, hoping that she could salvage Jake's impression of the school before it was too late.

"My boss is going to fire me if he knew that I've almost offended the son of the CEO of one of the members of the T7 Group!" Amelia thought to herself as cold sweat started dripping from her back.

Daniel saw the fearful behavior of their tour guide and couldn't help but give a rather hostile glare towards his best friend, only to see the latter still acting quite mirthful about the earlier situation, as though he was enjoying the other's misfortune.

Feeling frustrated, Daniel gave a heavy smack on Jake's back, almost making the latter cough out blood as the former spoke in a meaningful tone, "Jake and I are really grateful for such a warm and welcoming hospitality from the EU Military Academy! We're both surprised that the academy had specifically prepared such an experienced tour guide as yourself to guide us through the school campus. Isn't that right, Jake?"

Jake was about to retort, but when he saw Daniel's hostile glare, he gulped back all of the words he initially wanted to say and immediately scoured his mind to save face. "That's right! What a great service! I'm really looking forward to seeing each faculty within the academy! I've always been interested in the military, so I can't wait to see all you guys have to offer!"

Although Daniel had hoped that Jake would behave after showing his hostility, but he didn't expect for the other to bootlick in such an exaggerated manner. "Can you be anymore fake with your flattery?!" Daniel stormed within his mind, feeling speechless towards his best friend.

On the other hand, Amelia did not notice the sarcasm in Jake's tone at all. Her complexion immediately brightened when noticing that Jake seemed to have put their less than positive meeting behind him and felt relieved, thinking that she still had a chance to recruit this gold mine standing next to the person she was supposed to escort.

"I'm sure our principal would be flattered by your enthusiasm, Mr. Jake. Now that we're going to start our tour, are there any places that you would like to take a look at first?" Amelia gave off her best professional smile and asked with an amiable tone.

Daniel gave a look at Jake only to see the latter shaking his head, showing that he didn't have any preference. So Daniel took the initiative and thought for a bit before stating emotionlessly, "I want to see the combat mechs of the academy. I heard that the technology developed behind these mechs are the best of the line in the Federation."

"Great idea!" Amelia nodded vehemently. "The Federation had spent almost a quarter of its military budget last year in the development of new mechas and the professors here receives about a quarter of that. Therefore, we would always be able to provide our students with the latest technology that had just been approved by the government since they are built right here within this academy. In fact, some students favored by the professors may even be able to become test pilots of the experimental mechs that are currently being researched!"

Daniel and Jake followed Amelia as the three of them walked out of the Student Center with the latter trying to sell the advantages of the academy as enthusiastically as possible. Being overwhelmed by Amelia's machine gun-like speech, neither of the teenagers behind her could even speak and try to stop her, as they would be cut off instantly the second they tried to open their mouths.

In the end, the both of them could only shut their mouths and ignore the constant blabberings of the tour guide and slowly observe the surroundings on their two sides.

***

The Student Center was placed by the entrance close to the main pedestrian road. The road itself is wide enough to fit around 10 cars, but since there were no cars within the campus, it is instead filled with students of different ages walking back and forth, revealing a rather buzzling community.

Unlike what Daniel had initially thought, the buildings on both sides of the main road were not used for class or as a dormitory, but are actually shops and restaurants of different sizes. If nobody were to tell him that this was a military school, Daniel would have thought that they were currently walking across a sprawling shopping street in the middle of the capital.

Noticing the look in Daniel's eyes, Amelia explained, "The first mile of the main road of the valley campus is an entertainment area for the students here to relax and have fun after a long week at school. Here, we have many different entertainment facilities such as holographic film theaters, vintage cafes using real coffee beans, shops bringing the latest fashion from the capital, etc. Since today is a Sunday, this street would usually be filled with people from across campus, which is why the school looked so busy when you walked in the entrance just now."

Daniel nodded to Amelia's explanation as the latter started to trail off topic and speak enthusiastically about all the different desserts that a particular dessert shop makes in Amelia's favorite cafe. Rolling his eyes, Jake placed his palms on the back of his head and whistled a tune lazily as he observed the students passing by, his eyes lingering sometimes on the females that looked slightly prettier than normal.

"Stop leering!" Daniel whispered next to Jake when he started noticing the disdainful looks from the girls passing by. "You might get sued for sexual harrassment if you continue staring like that."

Jake simply shrugged and replied, "I haven't even done anything to them, why would they take the time to make trouble when there are worse men to bother them in this world?"

"And that's why you couldn't even get a date until now." Daniel sneered.

"You're one to talk!" Jake scoffed. "Are you any better than me when it comes to luck with women?"

"I've received countless love letters before I'll have you know." Daniel narrowed his eyes and retorted, giving Jake a disdainful look while his eyes curved upwards, showing his superiority towards his best friend.

"What?! Who? When? Are you just lying to me, or what?!" Jake cried, giving me a rather desperate look. "How cruel! I thought you said that the both of us are both going to be single buddies, accompanying each other in our abstinence for the rest of our lives! How can you just abandon me like that!"

"Who would want to spend the rest of his life with you." Daniel rolled his eyes in response. "I don't ever recalling saying that to you. Also, I've already declined all of these love letters sent via DM, so I'm still single."

"Tch! Handome ikemen should just go explode and die!" Jake clicked his tongue and glared at me disdainfully.

"Stop with your obscure references and walk faster! We're about to lose our tour guide!" Daniel replied, increasing his walking speed.

"Wait for me!" Jake followed, running after Daniel with a rather sleepish smile.

***

After walking for about a mile, the shops and restautrants started to get replaced with bland-looking skyscrapers. The glass windows from these buildings reflected the sun, causing Daniel to squint his eyes as he continued walking forwards.

"Next to the entertainment district is the residential district." Amelia informed in a matter-of-fact manner. "Since there are approximately 10,000 people enrolled in this school, we need enough dormitories to accomodate everyone, as we're an all-boarding school."

After passing by the residential district, Daniel and the others found themselves at the end of the main street. In front of them was a wide dome-shaped building that served as a transportation terminal. Looking at the splendor of such a large building, Daniel could not help but raise an eyebrow.