The Chairman

The chairman was watching the current team doing their exam through a high-quality TV using the small cameras hidden throughout the area to be able to see them from a variety of angles. He was sitting in an exclusive area that was for him and him only, sitting in a big room, on a brown leather couch with a side table holding a full bottle of red wine and a glass on top of a silver plate with a fridge below the television and a dark brown wooden office desk and a swivel chair on the left side from him. He heard a knock on the door.

"You can come in."

He heard the door slide open. When he turned his head, he saw Rico approaching him holding a tablet. He bowed before she said, " You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, sorry for making you teleport all the way here but I want to take a more detailed look at the info on the underage examinees. How many are there this year?"

"Only 10 and they all passed the first test," Rico gave him the tablet.

"All of them passed? Impressive," He opened the info tab to get a more detailed analysis. He quickly swiped through all 10.

"Hmm, it seems that they all attended Trost Academy."

Rico nodded."Yes, they did the Adventurer Program. So they were well-prepared before trying out."

"Perhaps, they should've attended the program in high school to be better equipped," He said.

He sort've wished that he attempted the exam at 15 but he wanted to ensure his preparation so he waited until high school graduation.

"I'm surprised that there are this many underage examinees in one exam. Ever since the previous chairman changed the rule of eligibility 25 years ago, the most recent underage examinee to ever pass the exam was 17 years old and that was 5 years ago, and now she's in jail. Such wasted talent," Rico said while the chairman looked at the bio of the underage examinees.

'Ackerman?' The chairman looked at the bio of the Ackerman girl. He looked at what Meta Power that she had.

'There's no denying it. She has to be related to him.'

"According to the records at Trost Academy, these 10 were at least top 5 in one of the combat-related categories."

He looked closely at Ackermann's accolades 4th in academics,2nd in athletics,3rd in accuracy and proficient in multiple martial arts.

'I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.' he thought with a smile.

"So, who was rated first in athletics in their year?"

"Examinee number 504, Eren Yeager. Although he rated first in athletics, his academics speak otherwise, he was 6 spots away from the bottom 10." 

He swiped to see Eren's biography. "It seems that he puts in more focus on his athletics…"

He looked at his surname. 'Another Yeager?'

"Hellflame?" He looked down on his Meta ability.

"A strong power that enables him to create and manipulate fire. He seems to be able to control the intensity as well. He used his flames to get him and a few of the other underage examinees to pass the first test."

"Yeah, I saw. It seems that he can manipulate fire through multiple parts of his body."

Seeing the accolades of these prospects almost made him smile. But these are accolades for a combat school in junior high so he couldn't be fully optimistic on their potential yet. The chairman reminded himself to take a closer look at the young teenager. 

"Hmm, aren't some of them doing their test right now?"

"Yes. Ackerman, Blouse, Springer and Kirstein are doing the exam right now."

'Blouse?'

He looked at the screen to see the girl with a bow and swiped the screen to see her biography.

"I knew her surname sounded familiar. Sasha Blouse, daughter of former A-rank Arthur Blouse. In the academy, she was ranked 1st in accuracy, notable for her extensive knowledge of monsters. Most likely got it from her father."

"Have you contacted any Adventurers to take and train the underage ones in case they passed?"Rico asked.

"My assistant was only able to get one to agree to take them in,"

"All of them?"

He nodded.

Rico crossed her arms. "So, who is it?"

The chairman said nothing and looked at the silver-haired woman before clearing his throat. It took her a few seconds to realise who it was before her eyes widened in shock.

"Are you kidding me?! Her?! You can't trust her with them!"

"She's an A-rank Adventurer.Plus…" He swiped to Arlert's bio. "She can help cultivate the potential of some of the examinees if they manage to pass."

Rico sat in the leather seat that was next to the side table. "Sir, I was thinking of reverting the age eligibility rule back to 18. Ever since the eligibility was lowered, hardly any of the underage examinees have even passed this test, much less even made it past the first one. Clearly having children as Adventurers is not working at this moment."

"How about we make a bet?"

Rico leaned back and crossed her arms. "What?"

"Well, I don't decide whether they pass or not. I have my faith in these examinees," He tapped the tablet screen. "And this test relies on them working as a team to beat their assigned monster. Besides the fourth team, which team has the undergrads?"

"If I'm correct, it's teams 4,11 and 17."

"How about this? If any of these teams fail to kill their assigned monster, I will change the rule back, But if all of them manage to pass, the rule will stay," The chairman proposed.

Rico leaned forward before glaring at him. "Sir, I don't mean to offend you but are you serious right now? You're going to make the lives of these examinees a damn game?"

"I'm not making it a game, Ms.Brzenka.I'm simply taking a risk and taking a chance. I understand your perspective. However, this is for the betterment of the future. If the examinees have more experience at an earlier age, the less casualties there will be.it's best to toughen them up now than later," The chairman explained.

He turned to see that team 4 was hiding in the bushes sneaking up on an unaware Kecha Wacha.

"Look, it seems that they're not as reckless as typical teenagers in this scenario," The chairman pointed at the television. "It seems that the academy's training has taught them well. They used their chemistry to pass the first test, did they not?"

"Yes, surprisingly, they did."

The Chairman got up from his couch before walking to his desk and putting down the tablet.

"Ms.Brzenka, I understand your concern for the younger ones. After all, out of 5 times that you were an instructor, you never had to deal with underage examinees, especially orphaned ones."

Rico stood up. "Orphaned?! There's an underage orphaned examinee?"

"Yes, Examinee 504 is an orphan."

"Then how is he able to take the test?"

"The government allows orphaned metahuman children to be able to attend the combat program if they pass a writing and physical entrance exam. But many orphans hardly ever pass since the prerequisites to pass are much higher than those who have parents to pay for them," He explained.

The chairman remembered when he took the exams. He knew how it felt to have those expectations placed on him. His classmates used to call him a 'government child'. But that 'government child' was first in academics and athletics. He grew a small smile and nearly chuckled at that old memory.

The chairman grabbed the tablet and gave it back to Rico. "Thank you, Ms.Brzenka.You may go."

Rico bowed before heading for the door. When the doors opened, A man with dark hair in a suit stood before her, startling her a bit.

"Shit, Nile! You scared me!" Rico had to readjust her glasses. 

 "Sorry, I was about to knock on the doors until they opened," Nile said, scratching his head.

Rico and Nile chuckled a bit with each other before she left. Nile entered the room with the doors closing behind him. He tapped on the two buttons next to the door to lock the door and to cancel the room so that no one from the outside could hear the conversation. Erwin sat at his office desk while Nile sat at the seat across from him.

"Good afternoon, Nile."

"Erwin."

"How's Marie and your little girls?"

"They're good. Anna's due date is in a week."

Erwin leaned back in his chair. "Anna? That's the name of the baby?"

"Yeah, we decided on Anna last week. It was either going to be Madison or Anna but we decided on the latter."

Erwin chuckled. "Another girl, huh? Your luck is terrible. I don't think that you're ever going to have a son."

"No, I don't think so either," Nile chuckled while he slowly shook his head. "But that's fine, I love my girls and I will love this one too."

"I know you will."

Nile grew another small smile before it went away and he cleared his throat.

"Anyways, I'm afraid that I have to inform you of an important update."

"What's the update?"

"He was seen talking with someone in the woods. The man that he talked with appeared to be a Hizurian. He had long black hair and dark brown eyes and was surrounded by many wyverns."

"Which ones?"

"They were Rathians and Rathalos. However, according to my report, they were talking about a sea monster however, they never specified as to which monster they were talking about."

"Are they planning to invade Hizuru?"

Nile crossed his arms. "I don't know. From what we got, there hasn't been any notion of invasion yet."

"Tell them to remain in Hizuru until further notice. I don't want to take any chances."

Nile nodded. "Alright."

"Wait, did he get to Hizuru by teleportation?" Erwin leaned forward. He needed to know what his methods of transportation were.

Nile shrugged. "We don't know. The group just said that he was just there. They saw him by coincidence."

'Knowing him, he most likely teleported so as to not leave any trace of him behind, ' The chairman thought.

"Tell them to keep an eye on him. As well as to keep their distance. The last group that encountered him decided to confront him directly and went missing, I haven't heard any clues to their current location since."

"Why would they do that?" he asked with a hint of anger in his tone. 

"I don't know. They were a group of 7 A-rankers, so they thought-"

"And that thought got them killed," Erwin said coldly. "He is much stronger than A-rankers, even stronger than most S-rankers. Remind this group not to confront him lest they want to end up like the previous one and to keep updated daily."

Nile nodded. "I will tell them that."

"Dismissed."

Nile got up from his seat and bowed before turning to walk to the door. Erwin turned to face the window, showing the other company buildings of the Yarckel District. He heard the door slide but before Nile walked out the Chairman said,

"I hope your daughter comes out healthy."

"Thanks," Nile replied before he walked out the door, automatically closing it after him.

'So, he's talking with a beast tamer. Is he planning to make an alliance or some temporary truce with him? Why would he need that if he already has that thing in his arsenal? I need to know more before I make any sort of move.'

"I'm onto you, Jack. Don't make me think that I forgot about what you did. Recruiting allies won't help you from your defeat."

Erwin stood up before he headed towards the door before the door slid before him. He placed his hands behind his back as he walked to the elevator.