Additional Classes

-"Ahahaha! Look, it's him!"

-"Aren't the Morningstars called wolves of the West?"

-"Some wolf he is! Getting owned by an archer girl in close combat!"

As I made my way from the infirmary to my next class, I overheard some of my classmates laughing and mocking me.

Well, I kind of expected it to happen anyway.

"At least, no one is saying anything to my face."

Although I said that no one can look down on me, I can't do anything to those who just talk behind my back. After all, no matter who you are, there are always people badmouthing you.

And to be honest, I can't blame them. I did lose pitifully.

Still, these people who are making fun of me right now won't be able to hold their own against a main character of Amelia's caliber for more than a few seconds!

So in that aspect, I did pretty well since I lasted for more than five minutes, right?

Who am I kidding?

I mean I wouldn't have lost if I had been going all out from the start. But then that would be taking things too far and I didn't want Amelia to get hurt.

This was merely a spar after all.

Well, even if it had been a real battle where I had to put my life on the line in order to survive, I would have done nothing against Amelia.

"Hmmm"

Putting my hand to my chin, I started thinking of ways to utilize my strength without standing out too much.

If I remember correctly, there may be a few ways to achieve that.

Centuries ago, when mana started flowing in this world, people found quite a lot of ways to harness its power.

The first was very simple. They used mana as a clean, unlimited energy source.

The second way was even better. They used it to bend the laws of the mortal world and achieve supernatural phenomena, calling it magic.

However, some people also discovered a third way to use mana.

Mana, in theory, was a very similar energy to 'Qi' of ancient martial arts of China.

I mean, of course, there were differences between the two, but mana could also be used to strengthen one's body like 'Qi' in martial arts.

Not only that, but if paired with martial techniques, one could achieve devastating results by using mana in the same manner as 'Qi.'

Thus, the arrival of mana brought one more thing along with it— the revival of ancient Chinese martial arts.

Now although the academy itself will provide martial techniques to cadets in the future I won't be counting on them. I have far better techniques anyway.

From what I know, the technique they will allot me will at best be a Low-grade Lvl. 2 technique.

After all, they will provide level 5— the highest level of techniques, only to their top cadets.

Now if I use mana as Qi and am able to decrease the output then I would successfully be able to control my strength and most people won't even notice.

Having decided that I continued walking towards my extra class.

Now, in this world, there are thousands of military academies.

But only two of them are considered the best of the best— Global Academy and Ethereal Academy.

One may ask, why is that?

Are their instructor's war veterans?

Do they provide the best equipment and state-of-the-art training facilities?

Do the soldiers trained by them go on to become the finest on the battlefield?

The answer is all of the above and more.

Besides their good record and war veteran instructors, Global Academy and Ethereal Academy provide one more crucial thing.

They teach their cadets not only to fight but also to survive.

After all, as long as even one soldier is standing, the war won't be over.

Anyway, since they teach their cadets how to survive, they also provide them alternatives for after their survival.

According to the law passed by the Central Government, any individual who can use mana has to serve in the United Military for a mandatory time period of 4 years.

But the majority of the people remain in the military even after serving their mandatory 4 years.

Why?

Because they are trained to become soldiers as soon as they turn 18-19 till they turn 21-22 in military academies.

After that, they are thrown into the battlefield for the next 4 years of their life.

That's 7 years of their life gone.

This is a spectacular way to waste the potential of these teenagers.

In short, most people who can use mana spend their whole youth being a soldier.

They don't know how to do anything else but fight in wars and follow orders.

But top-tier military academies like Global Academy and Ethereal Academy let their cadets dream of a normal life after their mandatory service time.

They do that by making their cadets opt for an additional subject to study.

That way, after their time in the military, they can create their own careers and lead normal lives.

You can think of it as additional classes in college or something.

And the variety of these additional subjects is huge.

They range from simple cooking and baking classes to more complex ones like robotics and engineering lessons.

Anything that can help cadets build their lives after their time in the military is provided here at Global Academy.

That's one of the reasons why every parent in the world wants their children to attend either of the top two academies.

However, the world is a cruel place.

To enroll in the Global Academy, one needs to either have exceptional talent or a rich family background.

Since the enrollment fees alone are worth a whopping billion credits, not everyone can afford to enroll here.

The same goes for Ethereal Academy too.

Well, that's to be expected since these academies need to maintain a pretty big fund to keep on functioning the way they function.

Now that I think about it, even though Lucas is disowned by his family, the fees for his 3-year course in the Global Academy are already paid for in advance.

Not only that, but I, on paper, can still carry the family name of Morningstar.

From what I could tell from my memories, that bastard Reynold wasn't really fond of me. Yet he still enrolled his son in the Global Academy and didn't strip me of the family name.

In the past, Lucas tried to get his parent's attention by causing all sorts of trouble which ultimately resulted in his excommunication from the family.

But I am different from the past. I don't care what that bastard Reynold and Yennefer think about me.

In fact, just thinking about how they treated all three of us siblings makes me quite angry.

That's why I decided to show them just how wrong they were and eventually, I will give up my family name and completely renounce all the ties with them.

But I don't understand his intention in sending me, the son he had forsaken, to the top Global Academy.

Nowadays, it feels like my emotions are going out of control way often. Maybe it's because of the imbalance between Lucas's memories and my previous life memories but I can't say for sure.

Whatever the case, one thing that I am sure about is that it will be a long time before I can live the peaceful life I dreamed so much about.

Ahem, anyway, currently I was standing in front of my additional subject classroom.

The subject I chose was cooking.

It may not be the most exciting class, but in my previous life, I enjoyed cooking quite a bit. There was a point in time when my friends suggested that I should just become a full-time chef instead of fighting.

And I don't think any of the main cast would be interested in cooking anyway. That's why I chose cooking.

Click—!

And entering the classroom, the first thing I saw was a crowd of around 120 first-year cadets filling the room.

It was a joint lesson that combined two first-year classes so there were bound to be many people present here.

However, one face among the crowd of first-year cadets stood out like a sore thumb.

"Ahh fuck."

Amelia Black, the one person I wanted to avoid the most was in the same class.

Ding—!

[9 editor points have been rewarded]